Trickster
by The Valiant Child
Summary: Yuki is a sprite running from a group of tricksters who trap creatures like her. But when she herself falls for a trickster who's out to capture her, what will she do? FaixOC
1. Prologue

Prologue

Author: XxArtemisxX

Editor: lady sovereign

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_Just gonna stand there and watch me burn,_

_That's alright because I like the way it hurts._

_Just gonna stand there and hear me cry,_

_That's alright because I love the way you lie._

_

* * *

_

He stood there, watching. Motionless. An inscrutable expression etched across his features. As naïve as I was, I had tried to call for him when I saw his silhouette step out of the shadows. I had hoped that he's save me.

My mind was in shock from waking up suspended in mid air in an empty room with no doors, no windows, just a floor-to-ceiling glass in front of me that stretch on both sides. Beyond it was the person responsible for my current situation, watching, probably celebrating his success of his deceit. And thoughtless as I was, I actually expected him to come rescue me. I realized soon, when he just stood there, that he wouldn't help.

I was confused. Why was he just standing there? Why wasn't he doing anything? Didn't he care? Didn't he care just a little bit? But his unblinking eyes just watched me, his gaze unwavering.

I couldn't gather anything from his expression. Slowly, painfully, realization dawned. I tried to fight it, fight the truth and the pain that it brought with it. I didn't want to believe.

A cold tear trickled down my cheek, another followed.

But he just kept watching. It was like he didn't have a heart, he didn't have feelings, emotions. It was like he was hollow inside. I was hurting, so bad. But he couldn't feel a thing, didn't feel thing.

It had all been a lie. Each word, each smile, all a perfect, flawless lie. And I believed it. I believed it all. I still held on to it, I still believed it.

Even his uncaring, cold eyes as they stared at me, couldn't change that.

I hadn't known when I first met him what he was. I had no idea. Maybe it was because of that that I believed. But now that I knew the truth about him, why couldn't I make myself understand. Why couldn't I be as him, uncaring, emotionless? Why couldn't I stop caring? It wasn't worth it, why couldn't understand that?

Because I loved him.

The answer came without a moment's hesitation. More pain followed it as I tried to close my eyes, in a desperate effort to block out his image, standing in front of me, staring with heartless, frozen eyes. But the image stayed as it was, he stayed as he was; insensitive, unemotional.

I shouldn't. I knew that I shouldn't loved him. I couldn't. It didn't matter to him what I felt. He didn't feel anything. Because he was just another one of them, just another liar.

Just another trickster.


	2. A fresh start

Chapter 1: A fresh start

Author: XxArtemisxX

Editor: lady sovereign

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A/N: I'm so relieved that first chapter is up. I can't believe I finished it. I can just hope that you like it. Please review.

Lady Sove(Rei)gn: And we'd like it if you didn't flame. This is a FaixOC fic, which means that all Kuro/Fai fans are meant to stay out. We don't read and flame your fics, so please try to show us the same courtesy.

Me: Time for the disclaimer. Should I read it? Or would anyone else like to?

FWR: I'd like to!

Me: Anyone? Does anyone want to read the disclaimer?

FWR: I said that I want to read it!

Me: No one? Seriously? Well, then I guess that I'll have to read it.

FRW: But —but —

Me: Disclaimer — I love TRC, and I obviously want to own it. But the fact that I'm writing a TRC fic means that I sadly don't.

Rei: The song below is _Unwritten_ by Natasha Beddingfield Enjoy the chapter.

* * *

_Feel the rain on your skin_

_No one else can feel it for you_

_Only you can let it in_

_No one else, no one else_

_Can speak the words on your lips_

_Drench yourself in words unspoken_

_Live your life with arms wide open_

_Today is where your book begins_

_The rest is still unwritten_

_

* * *

_

I pressed my fingers on the glass window and squinted outside. It was raining and the night's darkness was cloaked by a thin veil of fog. These mystery shrouded foggy nights were becoming more frequent recently. But I didn't mind. The fog would be helpful if a certain someone had to make a quick escape, that someone being me.

Sometimes the weather lingered on till morning. _That _was when I had the real objection. It hadn't snowed. Just the damp rain. I had to show up in school, soaked from head to toe for months.

The rhythmic whir of a car in the distance brought me back from my internal musing. Headlights slowly flickered to life, first just a tiny speck of yellow that grew bigger as the car advanced.

I picked up the two bags on the floor and bounded for the front door. The car slowed to a stop right in front of the porch. The woman in the driver's seat turned and smiled at me.

"Chitose-san!" I grinned back and got in beside woman.

"Did you say goodbye to your foster family? Where are they anyway?" she asked.

"They're out for dinner."

"They didn't stay to say goodbye?"

I gave Chitose a meaningful look. She sighed and turned on the ignition.

"I'm sorry about them. But you know that they almost caught you last time. We could only find this family in the last moment."

"I understand." I said softly. I remembered what had happened the last time. How I had been almost caught by the Tricksters. Chitose had just managed to save me but…

I shook my head and concentrated on the road ahead. It was just seven in the evening so there was a whole lot activity on the streets. I felt a little relieved. They wouldn't be able to attack me right in front of everyone else. And of course there was Chitose but she had got a little hurt while rescuing me from them the last time.

"How's your arm?"

Chitose just looked on at the road. "It's fine. It's healing."

"So," I decided to change the subject, "who am I staying with now?"

Chitose's smile returned. "You'll like the Kinomotos. We picked them carefully. You're going to have a sister and a big brother. They'll take care of you, I promise."

I smiled weakly.

"Your new brother, Touya," Chitose continued, "is one of _our_ tricksters. He doesn't have a sprite yet, so…"

"No." I looked at Chitose, "Are you tired of driving me around from family to family?"

She seemed surprised. "Why would you ask that?"

I bit my lip. "I just…you keep trying to pair me up with one of the government's tricksters…"

Chitose glanced at me for a second and returned back to the road. "It's not that. I'm not tied of you. Yuki, I just want you safe, okay? And if you're paired up, they'll have no reason to come after you. You won't have to keep running anymore."

I knew that what she was saying was the truth. I really _would_ be safe if I agreed to team up with one of the government's tricksters. I wouldn't have to keep running anymore. But I just wasn't comfortable being paired up.

"By the way, Yuki," Chitose spoke again, "there'll be a few other sprites with you in school."

I blinked, surprised. "Really?"

It was unusual for more than two un-bonded sprites to be together, hell, even two were dangerous. Tricksters can sense our aura from a real good distance. If two sprites are there in one place, the aura is stronger and more easily detectable.

Chitose could feel my unease, "Don't worry," she assured, "You're going to be in the safest possible place for un-bonded sprites. We have a few of our bonded as well as un-bonded tricksters across the place. And best of all, we have Yuuko with us."

"Wait, Yuuko as in Yuuko Ichihara? _The_ Yuuko Ichihara?"

Chitose nodded. I could only stare at her. In some point of our lives, all sprites eventually team up with a trickster. But Yuuko Ichihara was one of the oldest sprites and she was still un-bonded.

"I thought that you deserved some peace after what you've been through." Chitose smiled.

I didn't say anything. We rode in silence for the rest of the way. The rain started in again, pouring heavily to match my mood. I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes letting the memories flood in.

I opened my eyes again when the car slowed to a stop. The rain had subdued to a subtle drizzle and the drops of water gleamed silver in the headlights of the car.

"We're here." Chitose announced.

Standing on the front porch were four people, who I assumed were my new 'family'. On the left was a tall man with brown hair and glasses on his eyes of the same color. Beside him was a woman with long, wavy hair and a smile that lit up her features. Mr. and Mrs. Kinomoto, I guessed.

Standing, leaned against the doorway was a tall guy who looked bored. I knew that he had to be Touya. Right beside him was a girl about my age, with short auburn hair and jade eyes. She was smiling in welcome. Seeing this little welcome group of what was to be my new family, for some reason I felt that everything was finally going to be okay; that things were going to get better, and maybe, _maybe_ some of the old scars could be healed.

It was as I imagined for a short time. Then, everything fell apart without a warning. I wished that I hadn't been such a fool then. Maybe I could have prevented this from happening.

Maybe…

But somewhere in my heart, I knew. I knew that he would have tricked me eventually. I could never have escaped. And now, even as I lie in here, waiting for my fate, knowing that for the past months, I had been living a lie. A perfect lie that he had fabricated, I still can't bring myself to hate him.

Because he was the perfect trickster and I had walked right into his perfect trap.

* * *

A/N: I'm sorry that this chapter is short and not all that good. It's that I have a real bad cold and to top it off, writer's block! I swear, this can't get any worse.

Rei: But despite the fact that Artemis did a horrendous job with this chapter; we'd appreciate it if we received reviews. Maybe that'll take off the writer's block. Thank god that I don't have to face that problem, I'm just the editor.

Me: And a bad one at that! You only bother to read the chapter _after_ I've already posted it!

Rei: Whatever. At least I read and edit it. Otherwise, you'd still have all those typing mistakes on your fics.

Yuuko: Anyway, in order to make sure that they get reviews, Artemis and Rei have decided on bribes for each chapter.

Fai: For anyone who reviews the first chapter, Watanuki-kun will be cooking a three-course meal and I will make any desert for the reviewers of their choice. Just type in what you'd like me to bake for you along with the review for the cute ladies.

Me: Kyaaaaaa! Did you hear that? He thinks I'm cute! ^_^

Fai: *whispers* Now, I just think that you're creepy.

Me: Hmm? Did you say something, Fai?"

Fai: No… ^_^

Me: Alright then, that's it for now. If you want the next chapter fast, what you have to do is…

**R**eal easy. You just have to

**E**nter a few words that'll let Rei and I know that you like our fic.

**V**ery simple!

**I** will post the next chapter soon. So, please…

**E**veryone, you know

**W**hat to do, it's nothing too big, simply REVIEW!


	3. Unceremonious Attack

Chapter 2: Unceremonious Attack

Author: XxArtemisxX

Editor: lady sovereign

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A/N: So, yay, I'm back with a new chapter. I hope that you'll like it. This chapter explains a bit about what sprites and tricksters are. You'll get to know more as the story unfolds. Enjoy.

Sakura: Wait a minute, Artemis-chan, what about the disclaimer?

Me: Oh, yeah. Okay, who should do it? Syaoran?

Syaoran: Er…okay…

…

…

…

Rei: Syaoran-kun?

Syaoran: Uh, yes?

Rei: Disclaimer?

Syaoran: Oh, I'm sorry. Here it is. Disclaimer: XxArtemisxX-chan and lady sovereign-chan do not own Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle or any of its character. They do, however have a few OCs in this fanfiction.

Me: Thanks, Syaoran. I'd now like to thank all you guys who review my last chapter.

* * *

Nims-chan: Most of your theory on trickster and sprites is correct. I can't believe you got all that just from the prologue and the first chapter.

I'll start revealing parts about Yuki and the tricksters after her from this chapter onwards.

Don't worry Fai will show up soon…

Ms. Irony: Oh, I'm not revealing whether or not that's Fai in the prologue or not. You'll have to figure that part yourself. Muahahahaha *Cough! Cough!*

You know, I wanted to update much sooner but my Internet won't be back until March 2011. Yeah, that's right. I'm in hell. No facebook, no mangafox, no downloading songs, and I haven't checked my mail since July! I would have killed myself but then I don't think that dead people get to eat, surf the net or eat (did I say 'eat' twice? Oh well…) and that won't do. I also won't be able to get back those novels that I lent Rei.

…Yeah, I should stop talking now, I think.

Anyway, thanks a bunch for your reviews and I'm really happy to know that you think that I'm a good writer. ^_^

Nevvy: Well, good news. Some of your questions are going to be answered in this chapter, like, what are tricksters and sprites. So enjoy! ^_^

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Yuki's POV

Sprites. We are creatures of nature. Her children; her guardians.

We are in a way, part of humans as well. Our origin is a bit of a mystery. There are a few who have suggested that our kind might have evolved from humans. It is highly probable but the theory hasn't been proved yet.

Humans do have the potential to evolve. The first recoded and evolution was witnessed in Celes (a country very near to the North Pole) in the late 1400s. That was when they first started appearing. The tricksters.

That is what humans evolve into.

So why has the theory that humans might have evolved into sprites, been disregarded completely?

Besides the fact that we sprites look exactly like humans, except for the pointed ears (one of the few things about us that match the elfin folklore that the humans have conjured up since they found out that they had nothing better to do), research over the years has confirmed that our genetic makeup is very similar to that of humans and tricksters. Our magic is also at same as that what a trickster possesses.

As such, our magic can be linked with that of a trickster. This boosts both of our magic, makes us better, faster, stronger.

When they first appeared, tricksters didn't have a specific name for themselves. They were still called humans, although they could now access the hidden magic that they couldn't harness back when they were human.

Back at the beginning, only a few people were aware of tricksters. Most people were still oblivious and they took advantage of that. These evolved humans based most of their magic on deceit and tricks to get what they wanted.

That's what ensued the name 'trickster'.

It was mostly about money at that time.

It was not always the trickster's fault. There were a few humans who had come to know if the power of the tricksters and used them. And it was not just the drug lords and gangsters to take advantage of this new found power. Corporate leaders, politicians and even the police began recruiting them.

Sprites were a little difficult to find and capture. Our kind kept a low profile knowing what would happen if they ever got caught. But when word got out that they could make themselves stronger by linking their magic with sprites.

They began to hunt our kind down and tried to tie the two magic together. But they didn't know how and things began to calm for a while…

But then _they_ came. They called themselves Chaos. A group of tricksters and sprites who had managed to escape the research facility where the first experiments on tricksters and sprites were conducted

A few years back, a couple of tricksters joined forces and began collecting sprites. They called themselves Chaos. The government, in turn, formed Shield, an organization that took in sprites and trickster alike who didn't want to join up with Chaos.

All around the world, un-bonded sprites like us were taken to live in different locations. A few, who were in severe danger, were paired up with Shield's tricksters but some were caught.

I've been running for as long as I can remember, for as long as I have lived. I don't want to run anymore, but there seems to be no other option left. It's either run or get caught and the latter doesn't sound all that appetizing.

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It was morning. Around eight or so. There was a light drizzle that had been about it since the previous night.

A red Volkswagen skimmed down the wet road. Behind the wheel was a large burly man with long brown hair swept up in a small pony tail. A pair of dark rimmed glasses was perched up on his nose behind which were two brown orbs the same color as his hair.

Right beside him on the passenger seat sat a boy who looked like the teenage version of the man. Same hair, same eyes down to the pony tail and the glasses. The only thing that was different was their height. Also, the kid didn't share his father's build.

The car speeded up the almost empty road and took a right turn. The man narrowed his eyes as a tall figure stepped out into the road a few metres away. It was just a kid, around seventeen or eighteen. He had messy blonde hair and really pale skin. Even from that distance, the man could make out the kid's eyes: blue. The kid stopped right in the middle and turned to face the speeding car.

The man sucked in a mouthful of air, astonished that the kid was making a suicidal attempt right there in front of him! He proceeded to lift his foot off the gas and slam on the breaks before he ran over the kid, but his body didn't seem to obey. In fact, he pressed on the gas even harder.

"What the hell, Dad! We're going to run over that guy. Stop the car!" His son said, panicked.

"Shut up, Kyle! I'm trying to!"

"Well you're not doing a good job. Hit the breaks—Aaaaaahhhhhhh!"

The car was just a few inches from the boy, seconds before the impact. The kid in the car, Kyle tried to lift his arms to shield his face while his father tried on the breaks again. But neither of them could move and it most definitely wasn't fear that had them frozen. It was something else. A different force that they had no control over.

The two in the car watched as the corners of the kid's lips crept up into a smile. A second later a figure dropped into the ground in front of him. It was a girl, no older than the boy. She had long, jet back hair and deep scarlet eyes but she was half the height of the blonde. She was dressed entirely in black.

Slowly she lifted a hand in front of her as though she could stop the car with just that. A split second later, the car stopped while she raised both her hand over her like she was trying to lift the car over her head and sure enough, even though she wasn't touching the vehicle, it lifted itself off the ground, flew over her, in line with her hands and crashed over to the other side. All of which happened in just a second or two.

The sound of glass shattering echoed though the otherwise silent air. The girl strode over to the up-side-down car. She lifted her hand again and balled it up in a fist. Immediately the driver's seat's door scrunched up into a ball, as if made of paper and smashed down a few feet away with just a flicker of the girl's hand.

Another movement and the man inside the car was pulled up and hoisted in mid air. His hair had come loose and his glasses were broken. Thick red liquid trickled down his face from a wound in his forehead.

The blonde kid stepped forward and locked eyes with the man.

"Where is she?" he asked in a sharp voice.

"Who?" the man rasped.

"That sprite you had with you."

"S-She left. I don't know where she is."

The teen narrowed his eyes. He turned to the girl and nodded before turning to walk away. The girl flicked her hand sideways and the man slammed on to the sidewalk and blacked out. She proceeded to follow the blonde teen but stopped suddenly. Slowly, she turned back towards the car. Inside laid the kid, Kyle. The girl tilted her head to the side and just stood there watching him as he struggled to get out of the car.

The blonde stopped when he realized that the girl wasn't following him. He turned around. "What's wrong, Eve?"

Eve took a few seconds before replying, "That boy… he's a trickster."

The blonde seemed surprised "Are you sure?" he asked taking a few steps forward.

Eve nodded.

"Well, I guess that we'd better bring him along then."

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Yuki's POV

It was raining again. Although it was just a mild drizzle, I wasn't too happy. Something about the rain brought me down. I walked to school with Sakura and her brother, Touya who wasn't all that thrilled with the weather as well. But Sakura seemed to be enjoying herself. In the few little hours that I had come to know her, I had noticed that Sakura was the kind of girl who tended to be cheerful at all possible moments. Touya was quite the opposite though. He didn't share his sister's optimism.

This also meant that they fought quite a lot, something that was very amusing to watch. I was beginning to like this family. I could only hope that I wouldn't have to leave any them anytime soon.

Touya left with a friend as soon as we entered the school gates. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Sakura sight dreamily at the sight of Touya's friend, Yukido.

"Isn't he a bit too told for you?" I whispered.

"I know." Sakura said, still staring at Yukido as he waved at us and left, "but he's just so…" she trailed off and sighed again.

I couldn't help but smile a bit.

The bell rang just then and Sakura and I squealed at the same time. We dashed for our classes as fast as we could, apologizing to the people be bumped on our way.

Unfortunately, Sakura and I were in different homerooms. She wished me luck and walked off in the opposite direction while I made my way to my approaching doom.

I always hated first days. It was important to act just normal in such a day. Just perfectly normal. If you even showed the slight possibility of being anything but 'normal' the only thing that you'll receive for the rest of the year is cold stares and whispered conversations about how much of a freak you are. Of course I had no desire whatsoever to be popular. I just wanted to be invisible.

I took two deep breaths before stepping in. the teacher hadn't come yet so the class was in a mild state of chaos. I scanned the room for an empty seat. Thankfully there was a lone seat in the corner. I walked over and settled down. No one paid me the least attention and I preferred it that way. The 'invisible' plan was working. Not that it was all that hard to do.

Well, that was only in the case of humans. But Tricksters were a different matter. Somehow they always managed to find me. No matter how hard I tried, I could never be invisible to them. And just like the rest of them, he found me soon enough.

I didn't even realize that I was walking into a trap until it was too late. But then, it wasn't such a big surprise. It was part of who he was, what he was capable of. Why do you thing we call his kind tricksters?

But even so, he was pretty exceptional with deceits. Flawless, you could say. Perfect.

And callous…

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A/N: So, that's the end of chapter 2. I'm done with chapter 3 and if I get more reviews, hopefully the next chapter will be up soon. By the way, Yuki's going to meet Fai in the next chapter, so I'll need a nice amount of reviews for this chapter before posting it.

Rei: No, wait. We might not be able to update because of our Boards. It something like the SATs although more time- consuming *sighs*. Hopefully, they'll end in March...


	4. First Sight

Chapter 3: First Sight

Author: XxArtemisxX

Editor: lady sovereign

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A/N: This chapter has Fai's much awaited appearance. I'm sorry it took so long to get him into the fic, but I wanted to set the story up to a certain point before I had him out.

I hope you like this chapter.

Rei: Disclaimer time! Tomoyo-chan?

Tomoyo: Disclaimer- XxArtemisxX-chan and lady sovereign-chan sadly do not own Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle or any of its characters. They're working on it though, buying TRC from CLAMP, that is. So far, they've got 30 yen (that's around Rs 11 or $0.25).

Me: Tomoyo-chan! You promised that you wouldn't say a word about the money thing to anybody!

Fai: What happened to the two of you? I thought that you had collected quite a lot!

Rei: Um…er…about that…

Tomoyo: Well, it turns out that you can't trust those two inside a book store… or in a one mile radius of one for the matter.

Me: Can we please not talk about this? The readers want the story, not updates on my financial crisis.

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Yuki's POV

I had spent my entire life running, shifting from place to place, moving every few months. I should have been used to this by now. But being thrust amongst a crowd of humans I didn't know, didn't want to be around had my nerves on an edge the whole day. Well, I had seen a few sprites in between classes, but no one actually bothered to talk to me.

It was surprising, the number of sprites that this place held, that too safely. Why hadn't the tricksters caught up? I bit my lip and shook my head slightly, trying to clear that string of thought. I should just enjoy this safety without worrying about everything. If Chitose-san said that it was safe here, it had to be. I had to concentrate on trying to be normal, trying to get through high school.

I had spent most of the day trying to be invisible. It wasn't all that hard though. No one bothered in the least about the new kid. A few gave me curious looks but that was it.

It was in sixth period English, when things changed. It was then that I met him.

This was also one of the very few classes that I would be sharing with Sakura-chan. As it turned out, our schedules were miles apart.

I walked in a bit early. There were only a few kids inside. I picked a seat by the window, not too far into the class but not completely isolated either.

I didn't really want to talk to anybody but I also didn't want to be alone. I was seriously messed up. Maybe having Sakura-chan around for this class would make things a little better. But there was the fact that Sakura-chan tended to talk a lot and I wasn't sure if I was up to the enthusiasm. Perhaps I could just simply listen to her and nod along. That's what I had done last night. She talked and talked until Touya had to drag her out of my room. He gave me an apologetic smile and closed the door, muffling Sakura-chan's indignant protests at being carried off like a sack of potatoes.

I smiled at the memory. This was so much of what I had lost in the years of running. So much of the family I had never known…

My though came to an abrupt halt as I felt a familiar sense of dread creep up my spine. My breath hitched up and I was afraid that I might start hyperventilating. I saw him then, standing by the door, taking to another one of his kind.

His blonde hair was a messy but it looked good. His eyes were a vivid shade of blue and reflected a bit of annoyance although his mouth was curved into a smile. He was tall, almost seven feet but not quite. He gave a quick nod to the person he was talking to and turned around to the class. His eyes scanned the crowd and settled on me.

I wanted to run. Worse, I wanted to scream and run. I had never gotten over my fear of them, if anything, it had got worse.

I knew that everything was too good to be true. It was never too safe anywhere. No matter, where I went, how carefully I hid, they'd find me eventually. And just for my stupidity, just because I had let my guard down, I was going to get caught.

The trickster smiled and slowly, deliberately walked over to where I was sitting. I imagined that he was probably smiling at his victory. That after years I was finally going to get caught.

And as stupid as I was, I sat there, quietly, not running, not bothering to make any effort to make this trickster's job a little harder. I just sat there and waited for him to catch me.

* * *

Chaos Headquarters

Kyle wasn't upset. He ought to have been. After all, his father had been left half-dead on some street and he had been brought along by two of Chaos's numbers. But he never had been particularly fond of daddy dear.

His parents were both human and when they realized the truth about him, they were disgusted. They were actually disgusted by their son. And when that girl came, the agent with her suggested that Kyle should join up with Shield's tricksters. But no, his parents had refused.

They didn't want him with them and they didn't want him away somewhere better either. After that, Kyle had actually secretly wished that Chaos would find him. He had heard of what they were capable of, that Chaos was far more powerful than Shield ever would be.

And Kyle wanted power. He didn't want to be the hunted, to hide like some cowardly weakling. He wanted to fight; he wanted to be the hunter.

He had seen the exact capabilities of Chaos now, the power that he would be surrounding himself with.

That sprite that the blonde trickster had with him… Eve, he called her. The way she just threw the car, like it was just a weightless piece of trash, the destruction that she caused! Kyle wanted that…that kind of power…

He followed the sprite and her trickster as they led him through the maze-like hallways of Chaos's headquarters. He didn't know where he was going, he didn't know where this would lead, he just had a good feeling about all this and that was enough for him.

* * *

Yuki's POV

I didn't know what to do; I didn't know how to react. He was getting closer. Each step he took seemed to take an eternity and yet even before I could exhale, he was standing in front of me, smiling like they always did, smiling in triumph.

"Hey," he said, "you're the new girl, right?" he held up his hand, "My name is Fai. Fai D. Fluorite."

I cringed at the proximity of his hand. He waited for a few seconds before dropping his hand. His smile—however fake—faltered. "Uh, is something wrong? You didn't tell me your name."

He seemed to be keeping up his act. I couldn't understand why he would do that. He already knew that I had recognized him. How could I not. The memory of the night of the raid was still so fresh in my mind. It had only been a few months after all.

I had escaped then. I wasn't going to be so lucky this time. There was no way I could run. He probably had others with him. But no matter what, I wouldn't make it easy for him. I would put up a fight, even though I didn't have a chance of winning. I wasn't going to go down easily.

"Yuki-chan?" A soft feminine voice from behind the trickster broke my train of through. "Is something wrong, Yuki-chan?"

"That's what I was wondering," the trickster turned towards Sakura-chan, "she seems scared. I don't know why…"

Oh, no. Would he take Sakura-chan too? She was a bonded sprite but even so, this was one of Chaos's tricksters. Even if he didn't take her along, he'd definitely hurt her if she tried to stop him.

I could buy myself a little more time if I had someone by me but I didn't want Sakura-chan to get hurt. She was so nice and sweet. The only time I ever saw her get worked up was when she was with her brother.

Sakura-chan stared at me with worry written all over her face. She took another moment and then looked at the trickster. She seemed to realize something. She turned back to me, then back at the trickster and gasped. "Oh."

"What?" he asked.

Sakura-chan didn't reply. She turned back to me and placed her books on the desk. I didn't look at her. My eyes were still glued to the trickster.

"It's okay, Yuki-chan," Sakura-chan said in a calm voice, "Fai-san is one of us. He's one of Shield's tricksters."

No. He was one on _them_. I could never forget those eyes. Not in a million years, no matter what Sakura-chan said.

I let my magic activate. It flowed through me, lazily at first. "No," I croaked, slowly turning my head to look at Sakura-chan, "No. He's one of them. I saw him before…when they took my sister, that night…he was there…" I said pointing at the trickster.

Sakura-chan's eyes widened and so did the trickster's. For Sakura-chan it was only surprise. But a series of emotions crossed the trickster. Sorrow, anger, regret…

The teacher entered right then. I wondered if it'd be weird if I grabbed Sakura-chan and dashed out of the class. I didn't have to worry about embarrassing myself because if I managed to escape, Chitose-san would move me someplace else. But if the trickster managed to catch me, well, I still wouldn't be returning back here since he'll most probably take me up to Chaos's headquarters.

The teacher's entrance had the trickster distracted. He turned his head to the front of the class.

I figured that this was my chance. Sakura-chan had seen the panic and fear in my eyes. She probably guessed that I was going to bolt. She moved to the side so she was blocking my exit, then she took a step forward and sat down on the seat next to me.

_Don't. _She mouthed.

I didn't understand. Sakura-chan wasn't some weak newborn. She had obviously sensed the trickster. They always had a kind of aura around them, only a bit weaker than that of a sprite. That was why I had sensed him only just before he had entered the classroom.

I wasn't sure what to do now. I could, of course ignore Sakura-chan's _don't _and just bolt from here anyway but the trickster hadn't seem to recover from his strange daze from when I mentioned the night when my sister was taken.

_By him._

He stumbled into the seat in front of us and just sat there, staring in front. He seemed to have lost his focus on me. Or maybe this was just another trick to somehow catch me. I couldn't be sure, but I obeyed Sakura-chan. I didn't want to call in attention to myself.

It was a tedious hour. I wasn't paying the slightest attention to what the teacher had to say. I didn't really care. My heart me hammering on my ears; that was the only sound that I could hear, a loud _Ba-thump! Ba-thump!_

Sakura-chan didn't say a word during the whole time, neither did the trickster. He didn't even turn back.

When the bell finally rang, Sakura-chan grabbed me and dashed for the door. Which would have been okay, in fact, I would have been thrilled at the prospect of running, getting as far away from the trickster as possible, only she brought him along as well.

I wasn't sure what to do then. My mind just blanked out. So I let Sakura drag me along, not sure where she was taking me. I didn't even try to get up some theories on Sakura's behavior. Neither did I ask her anything. I didn't even try to get free and make a run for it.

Sakura-chan stopped abruptly by the World History room. Her eyes darted around the occupants of the classroom. The room was pretty much full but the teacher had yet to show up.

She took a moment to scan the room and I saw her face light up as soon as she spotted whoever it what that she was looking for. She let go of the trickster and waved energetically. The trickster didn't walk off the second he was released, like I would have. Well, he had no reason to. He stood by patiently, eying me curiously. I cringed and tried to pull away from Sakura-chan but she had one hell of a death grip on me.

"Syaoran-kun!" Sakura-chan yelled to get the attention of the person and, apparently, the rest of the class. My head snapped up at the name. I had picked it up in Sakura-chan's endless chatter from the previous day.

Syaoran was Sakura-chan's trickster. She'd pop up his name at the most random moments. It was as though Sakura-chan couldn't breathe without saying his name at the interval of every five minutes. And sometimes, she'd just hold her breath even after chanting about Syaoran-kun for hours.

If I wasn't mistaken, she had a bit of a crush on him.

A brunette pushed past the people in the room towards us. I gathered that he had to be Syaoran. He definitely was a trickster. I could sense him as soon as he was half-way through the room.

He stopped for a second and turned around. I felt a throb; another trickster. But there was a sprite with this one.

Syaoran waited for them to catch up.

For a second, I thought that I had the auras confused because both of them, the trickster and the sprite looked just the opposite of what they were.

The trickster was in the front. She had long, jet back hair and eyes that were a curiously violet. She was about the same height as Syaoran, just a bit shorter. Following right behind her was the sprite. He was tall guy with large build. His hair was just as black as the trickster's; cropped short. His eyes were a violent shade of crimson and something about him just made me think of a demon.

The trickster seemed more like a sprite, kind looks, an easy smile…but the sprite…he looked every bit like a demon trickster who would kill you just for the sport of it.

Sakura seemed to be getting impatient. I saw her bite her lip and shift her weight from one foot to another.

As soon as they were close enough, Sakura-chan took her trickster's hand and started pulling us along. I could see that the rest of them were just as confused as I was. I just hoped that wherever this lead, it wouldn't be into Chaos. Because as much as I trusted Sakura-chan, I could never let my guard down in front of the very trickster who had taken my sister.

* * *

Chaos headquarters

Eve took the boy, the new trickster that they found over to the master. Yūi didn't want her over there but he couldn't do much.

He wanted to go along with Eve, but he wasn't allowed up there from the time he tried to kill the old guy for ordering a hit on Eve. But that was way back when Eve was un-bonded and now that she was one on Chaos's assets, it was unlikely that she would be killed or anything but Yūi was uneasy all the same.

"Don't worry, she'll come back"

Yūi lazily shifted his gaze at the newcomer. She was just a kid, around twelve or so. Her waist-length raven black hair was tied up in a high pony tail and she was wearing a school uniform. She was leaning against the doorway with a smile playing across her lips, staring at the trickster who stood by the opposite wall, way across the large conference room.

"You would know, wouldn't you?" Yūi said tonelessly.

"Look at you worrying over her. It's cute."

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Yūi was getting annoyed now. Why wouldn't she just leave?

"Yeah. But something came up," she tapped her head, "new vision."

Yūi raised a questioning eyebrow.

"They found her." The girl said, "The sprite we had all been looking for. They transferred her to the Shield facility here in Clow. Your brother's in charge."

Yūi's face darkened at the mention of his brother.

"But," the girl continued as though she hadn't noticed, "I guess that all of us will have a part to play in her capture. It has to be gentle this time. We can't just trap and bag her. It has to be subtle and carefully planned…or we could lose this last chance."

"What's her name?" Yūi asked quietly, "The sprite."

The girl was surprised, "You didn't know? I though that Eve might have said something. After all, she's her sis—"

"You know that Eve isn't the same." He interrupted curtly, "she doesn't talk to me much."

"So, you haven't tried taking off her halo after the first time?"

"There's no use. She hates me now."

"You can't be sure. She was in a state of panic and confusion when you first brought her here. If you tried to sit her down and explain now, maybe…"

"You were there. You know what happened," Yūi voice seemed pained now, "Nothing has changed. She hates me and I deserve it."

"Yūi, you shouldn't—"

"Go," he breathed, "Just go."

She didn't know what else to do, so she turned around, "Yuki," she said with her back to him, "you asked the sprite's name. It's Yuki."

And she left.

* * *

A/N: That's it for now. Can anyone guess who the girl is in the end of the chapter? If you can guess it right, Yuuko will grant any one wish that you have. For free.

Yuuko: _Free! _*shudders* the very sound of that word makes me want to keel over.

Rei: Cheapskate.

Sakura: Um, anyway, please review. I read the next chapter and Fai-san is there so I guess that you would like to read about him.

Me: Yeah. And I'm a merciless jerk so unless I get a nice amount reviews, NO UPDATES for the rest of ETERNITY!

MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

Rei: Loser.

Fai: Alright then, we're wrapping up. Do not forget me or the reviews my beautiful friends. *winks*. And—

Me: That's enough. Bye for now!


	5. A Matter of Trust

Chapter 4: A Matter of Trust

Author: XxArtemisxX

Editor: lady sovereign

* * *

A/N: Things will be picking up from now on.

There's been some confusion over which twin is our TRC living Fai and which one is the dead one. I don't intend this to be any of a mystery so I'll just let you know who is who.

I didn't want to make too much of a confusion over the change in names so I went along with the _Horitsuba Gakuen_ take on things. Since we've known Yūi as Fai throughout the series, he'll just be Fai here and the twin that dies in TRC gets the name Yūi.

Btw, thanks for all the awesome reviews. I would have updated so much, much sooner but Fanfiction's giving problems with updating chapters.

Here're the replies to your awesome reviews:

* * *

**neko-chan cat eyedgirl meong:** Um, I don't understand…how is it that your regret over reading this fic is a good thing?

But please, please do read _My Angel!_ It's good too, really and it's actually in chapter 9. The others are extra chapters that don't follow the main story line and you could skip them if you want. You can take your time with that and just one review would be enough for me. But please, do read it.

* * *

**Nims-chan:** Sorry but Fai wasn't the suicidal blonde. But you weren't that far off with your guess. So, you are, after all, awesome. ^_^

Halfway through thinking up the plotline, I realized that almost ALL the tricksters were guys and I had to make adjustments. I always envisioned Yuki as the sprite and there was no changing that. Sakura wasn't right for the job either but Tomoyo just seemed to click. Hence Kuro-poop turned out as the sprite. ^_^

Oh, and a donation would be so good at this time. My financial situation hasn't improved yet. In fact, it's worse. My father's refused to let me go to the bookstore for the month. *sob*

I honestly don't know how I'll survive. But then again, what will I do in the store without any money?

Back to the topic at hand, I don't mind giving you part of the ownership. We could split it and kick Rei out. Not that she'd even had any interest in Fai in the first place. She just wants to help Tomoyo torture Kuro-mop.

So, what do you say? We'll split Fai. You keep him for one week and I'll take him the next. ;-D

* * *

**Ms. Irony:** I've read a whole lot of TRC fics and in most of them, one of the twins end up dead, just like in the manga. I thought about working with something where both of our blonde hotties were alive. I just hope I get Yūi's character right since my only help there is _Horitsuba Gakuen_, which is just so short, both the radio broadcasts and the manga.

I just have to go along with my imagination for the most part.

* * *

**In-A-World-Of-Black-And-White:** Thank you. ^_^ It's nice to know that what I write isn't utter bullpoopie. Please, so keep reading and reviewing.

* * *

**Lollipop Stealer:** I'll keep updating so long as you keep reviewing. ;-)

* * *

**KHfan22:** I'm happy to know that you think the plot is interesting. Hope it's good enough so that you keep reviewing in the future. Here's your update.

* * *

Me: Disclaimer- I don't own TRC. No change there. Been buying too many books. The song below is Strange by Tokio Hotel

* * *

A freak of nature  
Stuck in reality  
I don't fit the picture  
I'm not what you want me to be  
Sorry

Under the radar  
Out of the system  
Caught in the spotlight  
That's my existence  
You want me to change

But all I feel is…  
Strange, strange  
In your perfect world  
So strange, strange  
I feel so absurd in this life  
Don't come closer  
In my arms,  
Forever you'll be strange, strange

* * *

~O~

Yuki's POV

I wasn't sure what to believe.

Here he was…the very trickster who had taken my sister, captured her and dragged her to Chaos…he was here right before my eyes and someone was by his side, pleading his innocence.

I wanted to believe Sakura-chan and her words…but how could I? What if she was wrong about the trickster and if I believed him, I would be caught as well.

But maybe she was right…maybe it wasn't him…maybe the explanation she had provided me was the truth.

But…

I just didn't know what to believe.

I had heard of the Fluorite twins before. Chitose-san had told me.

They used to be Shield's greatest assets, a part of their most powerful agents. But that was before one of them turned over to Chaos.

They had been brought in to Shield by their parents. They left the twins there…but it wasn't really abandonment since the Fluorites were Shield agents, a bonded trickster-sprite pair.

They were on a case and had to leave the kids in a safe place, safe from Chaos. But they didn't return for the twins…they disappeared. Shield doesn't think that Chaos got to them because word has it that Chaos is looking for them too.

I don't know what the case was; the one that the Fluorites were working on at the time they went missing but there's speculation that their disappearance has got something to do with it.

Some part of me wanted to believe that the trickster in front of me was the Fluorite twin who was still on Shield's side and his brother had been the one who had captured Eve…but something inside me was still full of doubt.

Even though Sakura-chan and her…um, friends had tried full well to explain, I wasn't sure.

The trickster had stayed unnaturally quiet the whole time.

Sakura-chan had dragged us all the way to the library, into a small corner in the back of the place, guarded by two large shelves on both sides and a wall at out back.

There wasn't much scope of being overheard here. It seemed like a section no one particularly wanted to visit. It just seemed kind of musty and unused here.

I looked at the label: Mathematics.

Ah, hell. No wonder.

I sneaked a glance or two at the trickster as Sakura-chan babbled on. He didn't look particularly evil right now. He looked…sad…and with his face, the pretty blonde hair and sad blue eyes, the kind of sadness that had you go all mushy and would make you want to do anything to take away his sorrow

I felt that way, right then. But of course I wasn't going to do anything. Even if he wasn't one of Chaos's numbers, I barely knew him. Plus, I could never trust that face no matter what.

~O~

Shield Headquarters

Yūko was bored. Everyone seemed to be busy with one thing or another and she had no one to annoy or torture.

Most of the agents were out on jobs and the few who were free had school to attend. It seemed that Shield was mostly filled with kids these days and even though they spent most of their time in school, there were times when they would be sent out on short 'missions' or assignments, although they couldn't stay away from the facility for long.

Chaos would find them and they would be packed and bagged.

The seasoned adult agents were allowed outside of Shield's protective facilities for however long they wanted.

When any of Shield's members turned eighteen, they could choose to stay in the organization and become a full-fledged agent or choose some other job-description. But most preferred to stay, since it was dangerous what with Chaos on the loose.

But there were times when it was too dangerous for an un-bonded trickster or sprite to leave Shield. That was when Chaos had ordered a specific hit on that person.

If Chaos wanted the special ability of a certain sprite or trickster, agents would be sent out to capture that sprite or trickster and Chaos had a reputation for being relentless.

There were a few sprites and tricksters currently in Shield who were being pursued by Chaos. They had to be kept safe. Security had been breached before. It could happen again.

Annoyed and terribly bored, Yūko buzzed the intercom for her two assistants.

"Mistress!" duel voices echoed on the other side.

"Maru, Moro," Yūko said, "have any of the kids come in yet?"

"No, mistress," they said, "school won't be over for another hour."

Yūko cursed, "Well, tell me as soon as you see either Watanuki or Kurogane."

There were high-pitched delighted squeals and giggles, "Of course, mistress."

Yūko regretted giving up the post of principal for Tsubasa High in order to become the head of Shield. She wanted to torture poor Watanuki and she couldn't. Not until school was over and he reported in for his day's training.

Same with the rest of that squirmy bunch.

"She's here," Yūko turned to the source of the new voice.

Standing by the door was a lanky teenager with dark hair and blue eyes behind a pair of glasses.

Yūko's face immediately lit up, "Watanuki!" she screamed with joy, "get me some sake! Oooh, and make me some snacks to go with the alcohol."

The boy made a face, "Sake? Now?"

"Yes. Why are you questioning me? Go on…get me some."

Watanuki sighed. "Fine, but did you even hear what I just said?"

Yūko racked her brain as she tapped her manicured fingers on the desk, "You said, 'Sake? Now?'"

"No. Before that."

Yūko frowned, "Why are you stalling? Get me my sake first."

"I'm not stalling. I'll get you your sake. You're not listening, Yūko-san"

Yūko pouted as a six-year-old would when forced to pay attention to something when she'd rather be stealing cookies.

"What?" she snapped.

"Yuki Minakami is here. She was brought in last night by one of our agents who had been assigned to her."

That got Yūko's attention. She dropped her childish act and became all business like.

"Where is she staying?"

"At the Kinomotos," the boy answered, pleased that Yūko was no longer goofing around.

"Where is she now?"

"School."

Yūko took a few seconds to contemplate what to do next. She started tapping her fingers on the desk again, "Bring her over."

"Now?"

"Yes, now…well, bring me my sake first, then find our sprite" Yūko narrowed her eyes, "Watanuki's become so imprudent, haven't you Wata-Wata? Questioning everything that I ask you to do."

"WATA-WATA!" Yūko's two assistants' screams blared through the intercom.

A flicker of irritation flashed through the boy's blue eyes, "Fine." He said, "But someday, you'll get me expelled with all your unreasonable errands."

~O~

Yuki's POV

"Are you okay, Yuki-chan?" Sakura asked.

I didn't really know the answer to that. But I had to say something.

"I'm fine."

Sakura-chan didn't seem very convinced but I could care less. I turned my gaze at the trickster. At the moment, he didn't look very dangerous…just sad. He hadn't spoken a word. He just sat on a corner with his eyes hidden in the curtain of his light blonde hair so I couldn't decipher his expression.

He seemed to realize that I was staring and turned to fix his gaze on me. I quickly looked away.

"I know that it's hard to believe," Sakura-chan said taking both of my hands in hers, "and you'll probably need some more time to take in all this…"

She meant that this person right here, in front of me was not the enemy that I had though he was.

"But," Sakura-chan continued, "Please don't do anything rash."

I lifted my eyebrows questioningly.

"Like trying to kill him." The demon-like sprite elaborated.

I wanted to laugh at that. Kill him? As though I ever could. Not that I hadn't though about it the first few weeks after Eve had been kidnapped. If I had seen this trickster, I wouldn't have thought twice about killing him, even if he may not be the right guy. I was so mad that I probably wouldn't have considered about the consequences of my actions. But that was then…

Things were different now. Most of the anger was gone, it was mostly regret now. Regret that I was not able to save my sister.

But no matter what, I wouldn't break my promise now…I wouldn't kill…I wouldn't use my magic anymore, couldn't lose control this time. Not again…

I just nodded to let them know that I wasn't going to do anything stupid. I didn't really want to say anything but they were waiting for my answer so I decided that a nod would suffice.

An uncomfortable silence ensued after that. I wasn't sure how long it lasted. I kept my eyes firmly on the ground. After what seemed like ages the demon-like sprite huffed, "Well, if that's all, I'm going back to class. This was such a waste of time."

I still didn't look up but guessed that someone had stopped him when he cursed, his voice however low.

"There's only ten minutes left, Kurogane. I don't think that going back this late would be wise." His Trickster said.

"And plus," she added when the sprite growled, "we haven't introduced ourselves properly to Yuki-chan. So, be polite and _sit down!"_

Sakura-chan squealed, "Oh my god! I'm so sorry! I forgot to introduce you."

The purple eyed trickster stepped forward with a brilliant smile, "Hello!" she grinned, taking my hand, "I'm Tomoyo Daidouji. I've heard a lot about you, Yuki-chan." She gushed.

"Er, hi." I said

"This is Kurogane." She pulled forward her sprite who humped in acknowledgement and looked the other way.

"This is Syaoran-kun," Sakura smiled timidly, taking the brunette's hand in hers.

"And you know Fai." Tomoyo said with a nervous glance at me.

The trickster looked up and gave a controlled smile. I just nodded.

"Excuse me?" a voice sounded from behind. I turned around to see a girl around my age leaning in from behind a huge bookcase. She had short, straight black hair and brown eyes with a pair of glasses perched up on her nose.

Her eyes steeled on me and she gave a quick grin.

"Hey, Watanuki!" she screamed, "I found her!"

~O~

"Yuna Ichihara," the brown-eyed girl with the glasses introduced herself, holding out a hand while massaging the light bump in her head with the other hand (courtesy of the librarian). I took it, raising my eyes a bit at the name.

She seemed to have guessed my thoughts, "I'm not related to Yūko, if that's what you were thinking." She grinned.

We were on our way to Shield's headquarters. It was just a little bit off from the school so we were all walking the distance. Well, all except Fai, Tomoyo-chan and her 'demonic' sprite.

Fai said that he had to pick up some "Misaki" from her class and Tomoyo-chan remembered something she had left behind in the World History room. Kurogane-san followed after her.

"When Shield found me a few years ago, I kind of didn't remember anything about myself…" Yuna-chan explained, "So, when I registered myself into Shield, I chose 'Yuna' as my first name since…er, I kind of liked it and Yūko gave me her last name, beacuse she was my guardian for the first few years."

"What about now? Is Yūko-san still your guardian?" I asked

"No. I can manage on my own now. If Wata-Wata can survive alone despite his age, well…so can I!" she gave the blue-eyed boy by the name Watanuki a slap in the back for more emphasis.

I saw a twitch of irritation flicker in Watanuki-kun's face. He had apparently been sent by Yūko-san to find me and bring me back to Shield's headquarters. With dark hair, blue eyes, overlapped by a pair of glasses and a lanky frame Kimihiro Watanuki was Yūko-san's unofficial assistant as explained to me by Yuna-chan.

"So, the famous Blackbird here in Clow," Yuna-chan grinned in my direction, "things are going to get interesting."

I sighed, "I hope not. I've had enough excitement to last a lifetime."

"I suppose," Yuna-chan seemed distant as she spoke again, "Chaos hasn't tried anything here for a while now. If you're lucky, they'll stay away for a while longer."

"For a while? You mean they've attacked this place before?"

Sakura-chan joined in, "Yes, about a year ago, Chaos infiltrated Shield and took one of our Dreamseers."

"There were Dreamseers here in Shield?" I asked, fascinated

"There still are," Syaoran-kun said. This was the first time he had actually said anything since we had met, "There used to be three Dreamseers or Oracles here but Chaos got to one of them. But there are two others still left."

Oracles were one of the different classes of sprites. The most common types were Healers—ones with powerful healing magic and the ability to pull up protective shields, Trackers—sprites that could find anything or anyone with a considerable amount of magic, Shifters— sprites with the ability of transporting themselves and other to any place they wanted and Manipulators—sprites capable of mind-control.

Oracles were one of the rarer classes along with Reapers—ones with an incredible amount of offensive magic, Shape Shifters—who could take any form and finally… Shadows— sprites who could copy or even steal the magic of others.

Oracles are actually the sprites who could see the past, present or the future in their dreams. They were also called Dreamseers.

"In fact," Watanuki-kun joined in with a smile, "Yuna is one of the two Oracles here in Shield."

I looked at the person in question. She smiled but it seemed to be forced, "Yep. I can see the future."

Why did it seem to me like she didn't enjoy it vary much, her Dreamseer abilities, that is? I would have loved it. Maybe then the C's in my math tests would have improved.

"We're here." Sakura-chan said and I looked up. In the distance was huge building that gave of a castle-like feel. There was an enormous wall around the place. It seemed like the whole place stretched on forever.

"Welcome to Shield Headquarters, Yuki-chan." Sakura-chan smiled.

~O~

Yuki's POV

In the past year when I had lost everything I had, I had given up hope as well.

Hope of a normal life…hopes for a time I wouldn't have to keep running, for a place where I would be safe at last. But now…it felt like maybe that wish wasn't all too far away.

Yes, I was worried about the fact that there was someone here who looked exactly like the one who had single handedly managed to ruin my already sad existence. But maybe what Sakura-chan had said was true. I mean, if that trickster had really been in cahoots with Chaos, wouldn't Shield have already figured that out?

They even had Dreamseers in their midst. So maybe, I was thinking too much into this. Maybe I could let my guard down for just a while. I had been assured by Yūko-san that this was the safest place to be around.

But even so, I could never truly trust that trickster. But I could try to live the normal life I had always wanted.

My trip to Shield's headquarters was brief. I couldn't stay long because Sakura-chan said that she had a part-time job to go to and there was a rule about un-bonded sprites or tricksters not to go out alone anywhere.

It was just a precaution since the time Chaos had broken into Shield.

I didn't get to know much about that since Yuna-chan who was giving me all the details about this place seemed reluctant to talk about it and I figured it'd be rude to press any further or ask someone else when was she was standing right in front of me.

We went to Yūko-san's office right away. She used to be the principal of Tsubasa High at first but after the break in by Chaos, she was offered a job as Shield's head and well, she apparently took it. Although according to Watanuki-kun's muttered grumbles, Yūko-san preferred her previous job since she like torturing students.

Sakura-chan smiled weakly at that while Yuna-chan snorted.

"Actually," Syaoran-kun explained at my confused expression, "Yūko-san doesn't really torture anybody. Not like you're thinking. She just keeps sending Watanuki-kun on a lot of errands. And well, he doesn't like it."

"Well, like hell I don't!" Watanuki-kun said, "She kept pulling me out of classes to get her saké. You'd think not failing Algebra would be in the top of my list. But _no_… she thinks that the whole world only cares about her alcoholic needs."

I couldn't but laugh at that just a little bit.

But it turned out that Watanuki-kun was right, Yūko-san loved her saké and that was the first thing that I heard from her mouth the second I entered the office. It was a medium sized room with a mahogany desk with a window behind it. There was a Ficus in one corner of the room and chairs to sit on by the desk.

Yūko Ichihara was half-sprawled across the desk, her head buried in her dark hair.

"Watanuki…" she groaned in utter misery the second the door opened, "Where's my saké? I though I asked you to bring it to me ages ago. I'm going to die, you know…and my blood would be on your hands Kimihiro Watanuki!"

"You'll die of liver failure IF you keep drinking!" Watanuki screamed in annoyance.

Yūko-san covered her ears and groaned, "Not so loud!"

She seemed to notice me then. The dark-haired woman smiled in my direction kind of knowingly. "Yuki Minakami. Take a seat."

~O~

Chaos Headquarters

"What class are you, boy?" a voice boomed from the darkness ahead.

"Um, I'm a 3rd level Firestarter…sir," Kyle answered. They— he and the sprite, Eve were in the topmost floor of Chaos's headquarters. From what he deduced from the small conversation between Eve and her Trickster, this was the 'Master's' Office; the head of Chaos. (Although the Trickster had another, rather insulting title for the so called 'master')

It was a huge room, sort of ancient-looking with a dome-shaped roof and marble floor. There were a couple of huge windows on both walls but the curtains were drawn leaving the room, dark and dreary.

When he stared hard into the darkness ahead, Kyle could vaguely make out the shape of a man, seated on a throne-like chair with a glass on one hand. He couldn't see the man's face or what he was wearing; everything was just a dark outline.

"Firestarter, you say?" the voice boomed again, "now that's a handy trait. I wonder why we never caught up to you before."

Kyle didn't answer…mostly because he wasn't really sure the man was asking him why.

"And your name?"

"Kyle," he tried sounding a bit more confident, "Kyle Rondart."

"Well the, Kyle Rondart, let us see what you've got." The man said, "Eve, pull up a shield. But not your most powerful one. We don't want Kyle to fail on his first try"

The sprite nodded. She lifted her hands in front of her and a translucent barrier shaped itself in front of her.

Kyle could see that it was thin and didn't hold much against him. He could very easily break it apart.

"Show us what you got, Kyle."

With a deep breath, the Trickster felt for the firepower inside him. He concentrated on summoning the magic into material form with enough power to shatter the barrier.

In a flicker of yellow and red, the flames extended from the trickster and hurled towards the sprite, protected behind her shield. The force from the blast was too much for the thin shield to take and just as Kyle had expected, it shattered, sending broken shards flying for the sprite.

Blood poured in from the cuts and yet she didn't flinch for a second. But Kyle did. He had never really hurt anyone in his life and well, it was kind of unnerving now.

"Eve," the man from the shadows said, "a stronger shield now, please. Mr. Rondart…one more time now."

"But…" Kyle looked at the girl and her bleeding wounds, "But she's hurt."

"That's okay. You're fine with this, aren't you Eve?"

The girl didn't say anything. She simply held out another shield as instructed.

"See, that's a yes. Now, go one then boy…"

Kyle hesitated. There were some wounds on her that looked really bad. Like the one on her arm. If he broke through her shield again—which he was sure he could do since the Eve didn't seem to be using all of her power—things would not be good.

But it turned out that he didn't really have to worry about the sprite.

The fireball raced for her, barely protected behind the weak shield. But there wasn't much Kyle could do. He was scared of the man with the monocle, smiling in the shadows.

He braced himself for the impact when the shield would break again and sent shards of it racing to cut the girl again. But it never came. The fireball never even hit Eve's shield.

A thick, strong shield spread around her weak one, absorbing the flames. Kyle started at the blue protective orb around the sprite in surprise.

"What the hell were you thinking?" an angry voice resonated from the huge doors behind Kyle. He turned around and all of his blood retreated from his face when he saw the person standing there.

It was the 'master' who spoke. "No need to get so worked up. We were just testing our new recruit's powers. Eve will live."

Disgust radiated from this new person. He walked up to Eve, scowling at Kyle on his way. He leaned down to her level and surveyed her face for any serious damage. When he saw the deep cut on her wrist, his scowl deepened. He was wearing a school uniform so he took off his tie and wrapped it around the wound to add pressure so that the bleeding could stop.

"Come on," he said gently to the sprite. He took her hand and walked out. Just as they were near the large doors, he stopped. His voice turned deadly as he said the next words.

"Next time you treat Eve like a lab rat, I'll help Yūi when he comes after your pathetic life."

Kyle felt a chill run down him even though he realized that the threat wasn't for him. Something inside him felt that the death, if ever received from the hands of this enraged person would be slow and very, vey painful.

~O~

Yuki's POV

"So basically you want me to stick my ass out there, with no real powers to hold my own and come back alive after being promised that I'd be safe and away from any more fights for the rest of my sorry existence?" I arched an eyebrow. Eve used to say that it was really cool how I could do that. I thought so too.

Yūko only smiled at my light outburst. I wasn't the one to loose control and switch over to sarcastic mood easily but I was pissed and sometimes it felt good to loose it once in a while. Plus, like Yuna-chan had so cheerfully announced a couple of minutes ago before she and the rest of them were ushered out by Yūko-san; Sarcasm was good for the soul.

But to use it as often as she did, I couldn't be sure.

"You won't be in any real danger." Yūko-san leaned back on her chair, "There'll be other experienced field agents with you. And from what I've heard about you, the Blackbird could handle herself just fine even without magic back in the old days."

"That was a long time ago," I mumbled, looking down at the thick carpet under my feet.

Yūko-san wanted me to go out on an assignment with the others this week. There was some speculation about a group of tricksters and sprites hiding out on the outskirts of town. They didn't seem to be under any organization, Shield or Chaos and Yūko-san thought that it'd be better if we got to them before they turned to the darkness of Chaos.

While we were on our way here, Watanuki-kun had said that they sometimes got to go out of the protective facilities for small assignments and this was one of those times. There were a lot of trickster and sprites in the little hideout outside town and so there would be a lot of us too.

Sakura-chan, Syaoran-kun; Tomoyo-chan, Kurogane-san; Yuna-chan; Watanuki-kun and Touya-san would be in one the assignment. But worst of all, Fai would be there. Even though he wasn't the main reason I didn't want to tag along, he did play a part in it.

"Take some time to think about this," Yūko-san said gently, "The assignment's not until next week."

I nodded although I doubted my decision could be changed in any way.

"You may go now."

I nodded again and stood up.

I probably should have asked Yūko-san where Sakura-chan and them others might have headed but the thought just passed over my head as I remembered all the other times in the past when I had gone out on assignments like this one.

I was not going to repeat that part of my life again no matter what and besides even though Yūko-san had told me that I didn't need to use magic if I didn't want to, I wasn't sure I was much of any use without it.

I wasn't the kind of person who threw punches here and there and won fights. I was generally a quiet person. Eve had always been the aggressive one, not me.

I was so preoccupied by my thoughts that I didn't even notice that I didn't recognize the part of the building that I had wandered off to.

I blinked and looked around, trying to get some clues as how to get back but everything just seemed to blur in my head and everything just got more confusing. I sighed in relief when I spotted someone rounding up the corner, towards me.

It was a girl, probably a little older than me. Her frizzy curly hair was tied back and she wore a school uniform but I hadn't seen her around today. Then again, I never really paid that much attention in school anyway. But can you blame me? Stupid Cartesian products and Pythagorean theorems just eat up my poor brain cells I tell you and according to Eve, I never really had that many to spare.

"Excuse me," I said, trying to get her attention.

She had obviously heard me but she decided to ignore me all the same and just walked by.

"Excuse me," I said it louder this time, "I'm kind of lost. I'm new here and I was looking for Sakura Kinomoto. She was supposed to—"

"They left," the girl's cold voice interrupted my rambles, "Kinomoto and her friends, they already left."

"But," I stumbled for the right words, "but Sakura-chan said that she'd wait for me since un-bonded sprites are not supposed to go out alone…"

"Well," the girl said, "I guess that they forgot about you. What's your name anyway?"

"Um, Yuki Minakami,"

"Well, _Yuki Minakami_," she smirked, walking towards me, "I'm thinking your _friends_ got tired of you."

I didn't say anything. It was obvious that this girl was messing with me. Even though I had only met Sakura-chan and the other for a short while, I knew that they weren't the kind of people who'd just abandon somebody.

"And the whole 'don't go out alone' rule isn't all that strict anyway. Chaos hasn't attacked anyone in ages." The girl continued seeing as I wasn't about to say anything, "People go out alone all the time."

I wasn't that stupid or gullible. "Could you please just tell me which way it is to Yūko-san's office?"

She tossed her hair and gave me a scornful look, "Upstairs. Third room to the left."

I nodded and walked off not bothering for a thank you. She had, after all, been trying to convince me into breaking rules and the risk of being caught by Chaos.

But when I finally got to Yūko-san's, the office was empty. She was nowhere to be seen and neither was any one else.

I made my way out, towards the huge gates of the building. Not that I was planning to got back home alone, I just wanted to see if I could find someone who'd help me find Sakura-chan or anyone I remotely recognized.

"Er, Yuki-chan, right?"

I jumped as the voice seemed to come out of no where. There, just behind me was Fai D. Fluorite, the guy whose brother had kidnapped my little sister. Or so everyone kept saying.

He looked just as he did when I had last seen him a couple of hours ago. Still in his school uniform—except for his tie—and kind of tired but still a hottie.

"Yes," I squeaked.

"You weren't about to go off alone, were you?" he asked me, a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"No," I said, "of course not. I was just trying to look for Sakura-chan."

Fai bit his lip and looked kind of uncomfortable.

"What?" I asked.

"She was late for her part-time job. So were the others."

I did not like where this was going.

"Sakura-chan asked me to walk you home."

I'd rather risk walking alone.

He seemed to see my hesitation and my obvious distrust and for a second I saw the sad look in his eyes that had been there when we had been discussing his brother and his decisions of joining up with Chaos.

"I know that you don't trust me," he said with a sigh, "but it's getting dark and there's no other person here who could take you home. Most of the agents have gone home and even Yūko-san's gone."

Before I knew what I was doing, I found myself nodding.

Even though I sworn off from using my magic, I wasn't entirely useless. Even with my small build and seemingly fragile looks, I could easily put up a decent fight with just my fists and a few kicks.

If Fai so much as sneezed on me, I'd take him down.

He obviously couldn't sense what I was thinking so when I said, "Okay," he cracked a small smile and opened the gate for me.

Of course I had absolutely no idea what I had got myself into right then.

This was his first move, the first step in winning my trust. Maybe I wasn't as clever as I though I was. Because that had to be my stupidest mistake.

And believe me; I have made a lot of mistakes before.

~O~

A/N: Okay, so how many of you think Yuki's right in not trusting Fai and how many of you think that she's just being stupid? Is Fai the good guy or is he evil?

Let me know in your reviews, okay?

Like I said before, the story will be picking up from now and I think I'll put a little fight scene in the next chapter. I want some broken bones here, if not at least a few cuts and bruises.

Oh, and I almost forgot to ask, who do you think is the person who saved Eve? Any guesses?

It's sort of obvious but Rei took a while before getting it right so I might be wrong.

Oh, and I'm in a bit of a major block for the next chapter of all my fics. Yes, _My Angel, Reaper _and_ Trickster. _Every single one of them. But I might update _A Wish for All Eternity_. I haven't even started on the next chapter for trickster. I'll be going out of town for a few days and after that my results for the HSLCs will be up. So it'll be a while before you see another update. Sorry about that. And I'm also working on a book. That also slows down the progress in my fanfics.

Fai: *sigh* you seem to have no time for me, Artemis-chan.

Me: Yeah, about that…um, I think I'm starting to get over you.

Fai: WHAT?

Me: Um…I…er…well, you see I haven't read any good TRC fics lately and then I saw this Korean drama that had these really, really cute guys in it and now I can't stop thinking about a particularly cute guy from that drama so now I'm listening to the soundtracks of that drama and songs by C.N. Blue, the band whose lead vocalist that cutie is and well, I don't seem to like you anymore.

Rei: Good call.

Fai: What? _

Kuro-pop: She said that's she doesn't like you.

Fai: NO! My fan club should increase by the day, not loose members!

Me: Sorry. I'll try to read the Fai fics written by my reviewers and I'll try to get that spark back.

Fai: *sob*

Me: So, guys, expect a review from me for you TRC fics by next week. I'll be doing some real 'spark-searching' to renew my crush on Fai so that I can get inspiration for my next chapter.

And btw, do you guys know any good romance novels? I've been reading a lot of blood-and-gore fictions for a while now and I think that may be why my inspiration seemed to have abandoned me. Help me out here, please.

Fai: Don't forget to review. I've already lost one fan; I need some reassurance and comfort. Please review.


	6. Extra

Getting Kurogane to kill you 101

Author: XxArtemisxX

Editor: lady sovereign, Fai, Yuuko, Mokona

* * *

A/N: I had used this as an extra chapter in _My Angel_ but messed up the ordering and cut off the first few fords in every point and then smashed everything into one paragraph. So, of course I pulled it down.

Now since _Trickster_ has been getting the best reception so far, I've decided to put this up here as a thank you. I hope this extra chapter makes you laugh.

Rei: Our HSLC results will be coming up soon, so please guys; wish us luck.

Me: Yeah, we really need it. At least after all this I'll be rid of Math and Assamese…oh, and SCIENCE! YEAH! I get all the fun subjects…unlike poor, poor Rei.

Rei: Gloat all you want now. I'll be making the money later.

Sakura: Um, can we please move on to the disclaimer. I have a date with Syaoran-kun.

Everyone: You WHAT?

Sakura: O/O um, a date?

Tomoyo: FINALLY! I thought he'd never ask! Well, enjoy.

Rei: Let's not forget the disclaimer.

Me: Oh, yes. I've brought along someone very special this time. Mokona, drum roll please.

Mokona: *drum roll as requested*

Me: Presenting Mr. rich-spoilt-boy-and-hottie-vampire-extraordinaire…Adrian Ivashkov from Vampire Academy.

Kuro-vamp: Why do you have to keep bringing characters from other works of fiction into your TRC fics?

Rei and I: Well, we like it when hotties say our name.

Adrian: *grins* Disclaimer: Yuki Minakami belongs to XxArtemisxX and lady sovereign. All other characters from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and Vampire Academy belong to CLAMP and Richelle Mead respectably. Although I'd like to believe my heart belongs to these beautiful ladies in this fanfiction including the talented author and her gorgeous editor.

All girls: KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! *_*

Me: I think I'm about to faint.

Kuro-dhampir: *to Fai* Oh, look, there's someone more disgusting than you. (He's talking about Adrian)

Fai: *mutters something unintelligible and goes away.

Yūi: I think he's jealous.

All girls: Adrian, would you like to get some coffee with us?

Adrian: *smiles* sure.

Syaoran: Wait, hime! Where are you going? What about our date?

Sakura: I'm sorry, Syaoran-kun. I'll come back for the A/N at the end.

Syaoran: *sob* don't go…

* * *

(1.) Make up stupid names for him (duh!).

(2.) Trick him into marrying Mokona.

(3.) Tell him he cheated on Tomoyo by marrying Mokona.

(4.) Make him go out with Fei Wong Reed.

(5.) Get FWR to make a million clones of Fai and make them chase Kuro-pon!

(6.) Also get FWR to make clones of Mokona.

(7.) Drool all over the Ginryu.

(8.) Then drool all over him!

(9.) Ask him where he got all that gel to make his hair so spiky.

(10.) Ask him if he has read all the Kuro/Fai fics slapped shamelessly across countless sites on the Internet.

(11.) Ask him if he thinks that Yuuko is hot.

(12.) Ask him whom would he pick to be stranded on an isolated island with. Yuuko or Mokona?

(13.) Ask him whom would he rather be married to, Yuuko or Amaterasu.

(14.) Ask him if he has kissed Tomoyo yet.

(15.) If yes, make him tell you every detail of it.

(16.) If no, he hasn't kissed Tomoyo yet, ask him if it's because he harbors secret feelings for Amaterasu and Souma.

(17.) Dye his clothes and hair in different colors. Pink, blue, white, purple, green, orange, red. Whatever bright colors you can think of.

(18.) Get Yuuko and Tomoyo to seduce him at the same time.

(19.) Ask him what he'd do if he got married—

(20.) —had a daughter—

(21.) —and Fai started dating her! (this could so happen! I mean, Fai ages slow and he'd still be young if 'that time' ever arrives.)

(22.) Get Yuuko to remind him that he still hasn't got her something for White Day.

(23.) Dress him up like Sakura.

(24.) Dress him up like Mokona

(25.) Pretend to faint and go 'catch me my Kuro-puppy!' every time you see him.

(26.) Do your best 'Fangirl' scream each time he's in the vicinity.

(27.) Force him to do the caremell dance.

(28.) Dress him up like a clown and squeeze his red squeaky nose if he gets too mad.

(29.) Just ask him to kill you.

(30.) Write a Kuro/Fai fic and force him to read it.

(31.) Force him to read this.

(32.) Blackmail him.

(33.) Drool pathetically at the sight of him.

(34.) Whenever you see him, fan yourself and chant, "Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot!..."

(35.) Splash him with water and run.

(36.) Tell him you did that to check if his hair stayed so spiky even if it was wet.

(37.) Ask him how many bottles of hair gel he uses.

(38.) Ask him from where he gets the money for it.

(39.) Accuse him of being a bank robber.

(40.) Give him his severed arm (the one he cut when he was in Celes to save Fai) for his birthday.

(41.) Give him a mani-pedi.

(42.) Tell everyone you know about the mani-pedi.

(43.) Call him 'gay boy'.

(44.) Steal all his stuff—even his clothes—and sell everything on the internet.

(45.) Kiss him.

(46.) Bark when you see him.

(47.) Gift him a female dog—

(48.) —And tell him it's mating season. (since his name in Outo was Big puppy)

(49.) Sneak a camera into his bathroom.

(50.) When he finds out about the camera, tell him you did that to make sure if he sang while bathing like it said in Horitsuba Gakuen.

(51.) Lock him in a room for 12 hours-

(52.) —With a Kuro/Fai fan.

(53.) Lock him up in another room for the next 12 hours—

(54.) —With a hyped up Kuro/OC fan!

(55.) Then lock him up for a week in another room—

(56.) —that doesn't have a bathroom!

(57.) —and no windows or ventilation!

(58.) Make him grovel and beg before you let him out!

(59.) Steal Ginryu.

(60.) Tell him that Fai is much, much hotter than he is.

(61.) Pinch him—

(62.) —In the most inappropriate places.

(63.) Ask him if he's a virgin—

(64.) If he says no, ask him what happened to the 'she-dog' that you gave him.

(65.) Use the Hama-Ryu-O-Jin on him.

(66.) Tell him that Seishiro is much, much more powerful that he could ever dream to be.

(67.) Hide the oil for his mechanical arm so that it creaks whenever he moves.

(68.) Stalk him. (If you do decide to do this, you can buy night-vision goggles from me. They had superb x-ray tech installed. I use it when I want to spy of Fai. :-D)

(69.) Hit on him in front of Tomoyo.

(70.) Buy a puppy and name it Kurogane.

(71.) Force him to drink so much alcohol that he gets drunk and passes out.

(72.) Make a video of that time and show it to him when he gets sober.

(73.) Give him a collar that reads: I'm (insert your name here)'s slave.

(74.) Leash him up if he gets mad.

(75.) Replace Ginryu with a replica that is also a squeaky toy.

(76.) Hurt him and make him burn.

(77.) Give him a Tee shirt that reads- To "err" is human, to "arr" is pirate, to " " is ninja!

(78.) Ask him if he wears Reebok Easy tone (better legs and a better butt with every step).

(79.) Ask him if he has the Bieber Fever.

(80.) Ask him if his love for JuBie is greater than his love for Tomoyo.

(81.) Wake him up in the middle of the night to ask him what brand of hair gel he uses.

(82.) Serve him food on a bowl with the name 'Fido' on it.

(83.) Give him the most horrible flavors of dog food.

(84.) Sing 'Who let Kuro-puppy out? Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!' whenever he's nearby.

(85.) Remind him of the time you gave him a mani-pedi.

(86.) Ask him if he gave Yuuko her White Day present.

(87.) Force him to make chocolates for you on Valentine's Day and demand something for White Day later on even though he was the one to have made the chocolates.

(88.) Introduce him as your slave to other people and show off the: I'm (insert you name here)'s slave collar you gave him.

(89.) Put make up on him while he's sleeping.

(90.) Steal his clothes while he's bathing.

(91.) Ask him why his voice changed in the second season of the anime.

(92.) Laugh at him for no apparent reason.

(93.) If Mokona is far away and Kuro starts speaking in Japanese, poke him and ask, "Where is the button for the subtitles?"

(94.) Scream 'Mekkyo' at random moments.

(95.) Ask him to bark for you.

(96.) If he doesn't, annoy him so much that he finally agrees for the sake of his sanity.

(97.) Hug him at the most inappropriate moments.

(98.) Get Yuuko, Tomoyo and Mokona to join in with the hugging spree.

(99.) Stare at him longingly in the creepiest way possible.

(100.) Do all the above.

(101.) Tell him that you did all that it was your price in exchange for a cookie from Yuuko.

x_x ~Now you're dead~ x_x

* * *

A/N: Alright, so what do you think?

Please don't forget to review!

Syaoran: *sob* Why isn't Sakura-hime back yet?

Rei: Um, yeah….about that…

Me: Adrian found her particularly cute and they're out on the date YOU bailed on!

Syaoran: I didn't bail on her….she bailed on ME!

Me: Whatever…I couldn't care less. Bye.

Oh, REVIEW!


	7. Extra: Bloopers

Extra: Bloopers

Author: XxArtemisxX

Editor: lady sovereign

* * *

A/N: OMG! It's SHINee's Lee Taemin's Birthday! This calls for an update!

Rei: TAEMIN OPPA! SARANGHAEYO!

Fai: *grumbles* you won't update the fic on your own b'day but you do so for some random guy!

Me: This is taemin we're talking about! Have you SEEN you CUTE he is?

Rei: SO CUTE!

Fai: Whatever!

Me: Anyway. This is another extra. I'm sorry but I'm finding it really difficult to write the real story. I wrote this extra a long time ago. This is a collection of hilarious parts from each of the chapters I have uploaded so far. Actually, just the first three chapters. I never got around to writing the rest.

Tomoyo: These are the things that have gone wrong with the actors in the sets of _Trickster._

Rei: Er…Tomoyo-chan, this isn't a movie. I don't think there are any sets for this fic. It's just Arty and her comp. Oh, and the printed draft that I edit.

Fai: Actually, Artemis-chan makes us act out the plotline.

Rei: Wait, why didn't I know about this?

Me: You did know, moron.

Rei: I don't remember…OH! You mean all those times you _tried_ to make these guys act things out and it failed. Disastrously.

Me: Yes. And these are the disasters that took place. Please read on. We hope to bring out the laugh that I have been unable to bring forth with slapstick comedy in this fic considering Yuki's so serious and all.

Rei: Let's not forget the disclaimer.

Me: Oh, yes. Let's have the cute birthday boy read the disclaimer shall we?

Shawols (SHINee world. i.e. the SHINee fanclub): OMG! OMG! OMG! OPPA! TAEMIN OPPA! KYAAA!

Taemin: *says slowly* Er, XxArtemisxX? And er, Rei? Don't own

Shawols: *faints*

Taemin: na yeogsijeonbu leul ilg-eo boji anh-ass , gidalyeo !

Me OH! Why are you so Adorable?

Taemin: mwo?

Rei: say it again! Read the disclaimer again in your cute accent!

Taemin: ?

Me: just a second. I'll need the google translator for this… taemin oppa , jebal, jebal dangsin-ui gwiyeoun eog-yang e dasimyeonchaeg johang-eul ilg-eusibsio!

Taemin: Disclaimer: XxArtemisxX and Rei do not own Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle or any of it's characters.

Me: Oh, and I apologize to Eminem and all his fans for ruining _Love the Way you Lie._

* * *

Prologue

Author: Willie Wonka

Editor: Groundskeeper Willie (The Simpsons)

Hot proofreader: Usui Takumi (Kaichou Wa Maid Sama)

Fai: *sob* how could you forget ME?

* * *

_Just gonna stand there and hear me burn (sizzle! Sizzle!)_

_That's alright because I like the way it hurts_

_Just gonna stand there and see me cry_

_Oh, and loser? Close your fly._

* * *

He stood there, watching. Motionless. An inscrutable expression etched across his features. As naïve as I was, I had tried to call for him when I saw his silhouette step out of the shadows. I had actually hoped that he'd save me.

My mind was in shock from waking up suspended in mid air in an empty room with no doors, no windows, just a floor-to-ceiling glass in front of me that stretched on both sides. Beyond it was the person responsible for my current situation, watching, probably celebrating the success of his deceit. And as thoughtless as I was, I actually expected him to come rescue me. I realized soon, when he just stood there, that he wouldn't help.

I was confused. Why was he just standing there? Why wasn't he doing anything? Didn't he care? Didn't he care just a little bit? But his unblinking eyes just watched me, his gaze unwavering.

Wait a minute, that's just his cardboard cutout!

* * *

Chapter 1: A fresh Fart…wait, no. A fresh road kill

Author: Artemis Fowl

Editor: Mulch Diggums

Cute Proofreader: Choi Minho (SHINee)

(I LOVE k-pop!)

Fai: What about ME?

* * *

"I thought that you deserved some peace after what you've been through." Chitose…wait, no _Cheetos_-san smiled.

I didn't say anything. We rode in silence for the rest of the way. The rain started in again, pouring heavily to match my mood. I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes letting the memories flood in.

Suddenly Cheetos-san stepped on the gas and the car shot forward with a speed I wasn't comfortable with.

I blinked in surprise. "What? Are they on to us?" I was talking about the tricksters.

Cheetos-san didn't say anything. There was a scary determination in her eyes that made me feel as though she was about to kill someone. Probably me, what with the speed at which the car was flying through the road.

I turned my eyes on the road just seconds before it happened. The insane stunt that was not part of the script the crazy, hare-brained fan-fiction author had set for us.

Right in front of our car, just seconds away from collision was the silhouette of a person with a dog on a leash. For some reason, Cheetos-san had turned the headlights off so I couldn't make sure who it was.

With a sickening thud and a very human scream, the inevitable happened.

"OH MY GOD!" I screamed, "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

Cheetos-san, for her part was as calm as a cucumber. If is that cool?

"Dinner," she said briskly, slowing the car to a stop.

"What?"

"That dog. He's my dinner tonight."

"Why are you eating road kill?" I couldn't believe what was happening.

"Well, I'm saving up for a better car so I had to make some cut-backs."

"Food? That's what you cut back? What about cable?"

"I can't live without my daily dose of soap opera."

"Are you INSANE? And heartless?"

"Don't lecture me like you're my mother," the psychopathic murderer snapped. "Just take the wheel and when I come back with the dog, drive. The owner might come after us."

I gulped, too sacred to argue. What if she kills me next?

She got out of the car and I shifted to the driver's seat, in my panic forgetting to tell Cheetos cheese puffs that I was the most horrible driver on the face of the earth. I didn't even have a license considering I failed my test TWENTY times!

Little Mrs. Dexter returned a little later, running like the crazy woman she was. There was no dog in her hands.

"Drive!" she said frantically getting in.

"What happened? Where's the dog."

"Missed him. Hit the owner instead."

"Oh my god!" I seemed to be saying that a lot but this was no normal circumstance. "Call for an ambulance! Or get him in the car. We need to take him to the hospital—"

"It's Fei Wong Reed!" Cheetos said.

I stared at her for a second or two before pulling the car into gear. "Never mind," I hit reverse, squashed the loser again and fled the scene.

* * *

Chapter 2: Unceremonious (Mars) Attack!

Author: Robert Fartingson

Editor: Lethargic Bella

Hottie Proofreader: Taylor Lautner

Fai: What did I ever do to deserve this?

* * *

A red Volkswagen skimmed down the wet road. Behind the wheel was a large burly man with long brown hair swept up in a small pony tail. A pair of dark rimmed glasses was perched up on his nose behind which were two brown orbs the same color as his hair.

Right beside him on the passenger seat sat a boy who looked like the teenage version of the man. Same hair, same eyes down to the pony tail and the glasses. The only thing that was different was their height. Also, the kid didn't share his father's build.

The car speeded up the almost empty road and took a right turn. The man narrowed his eyes as a tall figure stepped out into the road a few meters away. It was just a kid, around seventeen or eighteen. He had messy blonde hair and really pale skin. Even from that distance, the man could make out the kid's eyes: blue. The kid stopped right in the middle and turned to face the speeding car.

And right before the man's eyes, the suicidal kid grabbed his own hair and pulled. Its humanoid mask came off. While the rest of its body was still disguised, the Volkswagen's driver and his kid, Kyle could see that the exposed head was definitely not human.

It was green, like a frog. The eyes black and as large as baseballs.

""What the hell, Dad! Run over that guy! Hit the gas!" the panicked Kyle said.

"Shut up, Kyle! I'm trying to!"

The car was just a few inches from the boy-alien, seconds before the impact when another of them dropped to the ground. It was just like the other one. Green, frog-like with huge eyes. It reached into its coat pocket and produced a…bazooka!

Whoa! There must be a whole parallel universe going on there!

Suddenly out of nowhere another car overtook Kyle and his father and slammed into the two aliens and squashed both of them. In the last second, the Volkswagen screeched to a halt, avoiding a collision with the strange saviour.

A woman in a black coat and jeans got out. She had long hair, tied in a neat pony tail and an excited expression on her face.

Kyle's father got out of the car to offer his thanks and cringed when he saw the woman's creep smile and overenthusiastic air around her.

"This is the best road kill I've ever brought home for dinner," she gushed.

"Uh," the two astonished father-and-son scrambled for words, eyeing the weirdo before them. She gathered up her 'dinner' and got back to her car and without another word drove away.

* * *

On the opposite side of the road where the strange aliens had shown up, inside a little café by the name Cat's eye two people sat by a window table overlooking the road.

"Um," of the two, a short girl with flaming red eyes and long, black hair said. "I feel like we're forgetting something. That there was somewhere we were supposed to be."

"Whatever," the guy frowned, sipping his coffee.

* * *

Chapter 3: First Sight of the blue nose less alien

Author: Hades' skull's on fire

Editor: Cerberus wants his squeaky toy

(UN)Cute Proofreader: Fai D. Fluorite

Fai: FINALLY! wait, did you put an 'un' in there?

Cute Proofreader: Jung YongHwa (C.N. Blue)

Me: *swoon*

Fai: NO!

* * *

I didn't know what to do; I didn't know how to react. He was getting closer. Each step he took seemed to take an eternity and yet even before I could exhale, he was standing in front of me, smiling like they always did, smiling at the satisfaction of my apparent terror.

"Hey," he said, "you're the new girl, right?" he held up his hand, "My name is Fai. Fai D. Fluorite."

I cringed at the proximity of his hand. He waited for a few seconds before dropping his hand. His smile—however fake—faltered. "Uh, is something wrong? You didn't tell me your name."

He seemed to be keeping up his act. I couldn't understand why he would do that. He already knew that I had recognized him. How could I not? _Everyone _knew him! And the fake name? Please!

"What do you want?" I asked, taking a step back, "Why are you here?"

His expression turned puzzled, "I don't understand. What are you talking about?"

"You think I don't recognize you?" I said, "You think I'm a fool?"

He took a step towards me, lifting a cautious hand like I was some scared animal. "Calm down,"

"Shut up, Voldy!" I screamed.

That stopped him short. "Voldy?"

"Yes. Do you think I wouldn't notice the fact that you have no nose, huh, Voldemort? Now tell me, where's the real Fai?"

"What are you taking about? I'M FAI! Voldemort stole my nose last week for the premiere of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2, remember?"

"Like hell you are!" I shouted and did the only thing I could think of. I reached into the vast arsenal of weapons stored in a separate universe that only fictional characters from manga and anime characters can access and rammed the blue nose less alien with a sledgehammer.

"That's for Snape and Dobby and Hedwig and everyone else you and your evil minions have killed!"

Satisfied seeing the Dark Lord out cold, I put the hammer back into its universe and smiled at my good days work at defeating evil.

"Hold it!" someone shouted just as I was about to dispose of the body. I turned to see a short girl with chin length brown hair, fully clothed in orange with huge glasses perched on her nose standing with her hand held up in the universal sign of 'stop' by the classroom door. Behind her was a tall blonde guy, a redheaded good-looking girl, and another guy with a huge dog beside him, all staring at me.

Oh god. I couldn't believe this.

"Mystery Inc?" I said, incuriously.

Velma stepped forward and moved towards the fallen Dark Lord. "This is not Voldemort," she said, "this is actually…"

The silence and anticipation thickened.

"Few Wong Reed," she gave his hair a good yank and the mask immediately came off. Everyone gasped, as expected.

"Hmm," I said, not feeling too bad. When I had learned that FWR had escaped from that time I squashed him under Cheetos-san's car, I'd been devastated. Now I guess, I'd finished the job. "Good riddance."

"Damn," someone cursed from behind me, "I wanted to eat the Dark Lord."

It was Cheetos. Seems like her crazy dietary habits hadn't improved much.

"Eat Voldy?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"If Nagini can eat all those people, they must be tasty."

I recoiled in disgust, "You're not a snake."

"What's your point, kid?"

I sighed, "Whatever. Well, go ahead, have FWR instead."

"No way! I'll get food poisoning!"

Suddenly FWR twitched. Everyone jumped back in surprise.

"I thought he was dead," I croaked.

"Ahaha!" the nose less FWR laughed, "I made horcruxes like the Dark Lord!"

"Is that why you have no nose?" I asked.

"You can't kill me!"

"Oh yeah?" everyone turned towards the new voice. I vaguely recognized it as dread crept over me. Even FWR raised his eyebrows and looked a little panicked.

And then all hell broke loose when the newcomer started singing,

"Kickin' in the front seat  
Sittin' in the back seat  
Gotta make my mind up  
Which seat can I take?

It's Friday, Friday  
Gotta get down on Friday  
Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend, weekend  
Friday, Friday  
Gettin' down on Friday  
Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend

Partyin', partyin' (Yeah)  
Partyin', partyin' (Yeah)  
Fun, fun, fun, fun  
Lookin' forward to the weekend…"

"NO!" FWR screamed, covering his ears like everyone else, "MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! I"D RATHER DIE! KILL ME!"  
I grinned. "Oh, no. You deserve this!"

"NOOOOOO!"

* * *

A/N: Okay, so that's the end to this extra. It was also kind of a tribute to the HP series. But I uploaded this because of Taemin oppa's birthday. If any of you guys haven't heard of SHINee, I suggest you get yourself to youtube right now and look for SHINee-Replay. There is also a dance version of that song that is a must watch and the Japanese version with the video is pretty awesome.

Other SHINee songs include, Hello, Lucifer, Ring Ding Dong, Love Like Oxygen, A-Yo, Life, Obsession, Romantic, Ready or Not, graze, one, year of us, electric heart, get it…and okay, the list goes on!

I'll update the next chapter in August. I'm sorry but I have to study for 1st unit test which starts in the 8th next month and I'm also participating in a manga competition and I have to submit my entry by the end of this month. So, I don't have much time to work on my fanfics. Sorry about that.

Rei: Please play that this idiot wins the manga competition or she'll drive everyone crazy.

Fai: Please Review!

Me and Rei: Once again, Happy Birthday, Taemin Oppa!


	8. Halo

Chapter 5: Halo

Author: XxArtemisxX

Editor: lady sovereign

* * *

A/N: I'm back! How long has it been since the last update? Two months? So, did you miss me? Did you miss me?

Rei: Please. Don't kid yourself. No one misses you. They just want the story and Fai and maybe even the parts in the Author's Note where I constantly insult you. Yeah. Now _that_ they probably missed. Not you.

Me: Spare me your delusional theories.

Rei: Me? Delusional? Are you nuts?

Fai: Artemis-chan, can we move on to the story so that people can appreciate what's important: ME?

Me: Of course, my love.

Rei: Wait O_o WHAT is going on? You little prick, did you give up on Taemin? How could you?

Me: Of course I didn't. Why would I?

Rei: Then why did you call Fai *shudders* my love?

Me: Because he's back on my list! *cue happy dance*

Fai: Oh yeah! HAPPY DANCE! The stalker loves me again!

Rei: How did THAT happen?

Me: Well, remember that book I bought you?

Rei: The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa?

Me: Yeah. Well, you see, Kagawa's version of Robin Goodfellow really reminded me of Fai and well, these are the consequences.

Rei: Didn't you like that other guy, his icyness, Winter Court's Prince Ash.

Me: Uh, no. I only loved his money.

Rei: O_O My God, you're shallow.

Me: I know.

Kuro-poop: Wait, so if you like the mage again, you can get him off our backs! Here! Take the moron away! The TRC cast doesn't want him round. He's been hogging too much attention.

Me: Still can't. CLAMP owns him.

Obsidian Butterfly: Hey, didn't I give you the money you needed to buy TRC. What did you do with it?

Me: Tee, he, he. Uh, funny thing actually… I spend it up on books.

Obsidian Butterfly: *takes out Ginryu from the alternate weapons universe that is usually accessible to anime and manga characters*

Me: *gulp* *starts to back away* now, now, no need to get violent. I'll pay you back. Maybe after a few decades or so.

Obsidian Butterfly: *takes out Hien*

Me: Oh, come on. I was broke. And there were so many good books to read! Like the spin-off series from Vampire Academy: Bloodlines and the prequel of The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Ring of Solomon, not to mention…

Obsidian Butterfly: *takes out a bazooka*

Me: Okay, time to run. Bye! Enjoy the chapter. And remember, I don't own anything. Yet. Oh, and thanks for all the reviews.

*BOOM!* (The Bazooka being fired)

Me: Eeek! *poof* *disappears off to another dimension*

* * *

**Anonymous: **I made tomoyo the trickster because she's kind of mischievous. She could easily trick somebody.

Chitose will re-appear in one of the next chapters. Being a fully fledged Shield agent, she has other sprites and tricksters under her care so she can't stick around Yuki for long.

Fai and Yūi used to be close like in TRC but something happened that tore the brothers away. You'll know what in the future chapters.

* * *

**In-A-World-Of-Black-And-White:** You seemed just as suspicious of Fai as Yuki. Maybe you can make your mind about it after this chapter? He did save her and all but you never know with me.

Maybe he's super evil and is plotting world domination with FWR. Maybe he isn't. I guess only more updates will tell ;)

* * *

**Ms. Irony:** Well, you caught up on that little hint I left, although it was really obvious. I just felt that leaving some clues would be nice for the readers instead of just leaving everyone in the dark. I mean, it's chapter five already. I've got to let you guys on to something!

I just gave off those references on Eve because the story was going off a bit too serious. Rei said that it needed some lightening up and since Yuki's not really up for good old sarcasm after losing here sis and all, I thought of adding something about Eve. I hadn't really thought that those little bits give a lead on Eve character.

Oh, and you learn all about 'Blackbird' soon. Thanks for the tip about the typos and grammar. I don't tend to proof read my chapters. That's Rei's job. She pretty bummed that she missed out some things but she'll get over it. She wasn't paying attention to the last bits of the previous chapter since I had to force her to read it. She keeps postponing on editing. Sometimes I think I should get a replacement. But if I do, she might kill me.

* * *

**PerfectlyCrumbledPaper:** Well, you're on to something there. I thought I made it obvious with the tie thing but I suppose I left other clues as well. Great job figuring it out. But don't be hasty in writing Fai off to the evil side. He might really be trying to help Yuki. You never know.

There are some romance novels that are seriously depressing. I especially hate love triangles and yet I've read a lot of books with them. It seriously brings me down. I've decided that I'll be sticking to Meg Cabot's works for a while now, even though I've already read all her good ones.

And I'll be reading A LOT of fai fics now. Especially with him being back on the list and all.

And I don't think you're a hypocrite. When you like someone fictional, the maximum spark stays only for a while after you've finished reading (or watching) whatever it was where you found your guy.

* * *

**nevvy:** LOL You're not a dummy. It happens to a lot of people.

Glad you like _Trickster_. I really wanted both the twins to be alive _somewhere_ because everyone just keeps killing them all the time. I felt a little bad for the dead Fai so I decided to keep him alive here.

Hmm, it might or might not be Domeki. I'm not sure if I should tell you yet. I guess it'll be better if you figure it out on your own. I just LOVE leaving people in suspense, although I don't like it when _I'm_ the one who's reading. Yeah, I'm a hypocrite. But then again, I can predict most of the parts of the book I'm reading with ease. ^_^

Thanks for the tip about the romance novel. I'll see if I can get an e-book because I bought over twenty books in six months and my dad is not too happy about it_._ I usually enjoy books with lots of blood and gore but there are times when I crave a good chick lit. I'm currently browsing Meg Cabot's works and I decided to go with the _1800-WHERE-R-U _series since _Abandon: Underworld _isn't coming out until next year.

I'll check out the fanfics you recommended as soon as I can. And Rei says that she's gonna read the Kuro/Fai one. She's such a crappy editor. She'll read everything except my chapters. That's why my updates tend to take so long. She doesn't edit in time and then yells at me when I upload the next chapter before she's had a look.

And even though I'll be working on my book, I won't forget to update. So, don't worry. I really like writing _Trickster_ and I LOVE the reviews you guys give me! :-D

* * *

**Obsidian Buterfly:** Yes, the tie was a dead giveaway. I wanted to take that part off but then I thought that the readers should have some clues. And really, not everyone caught on to that. So I guess it wasn't a horribly obvious spoiler.

And no, Eve is bonded to Yūi.

The idea of Kuro as a sprite seems a bit funny to me too but I guess he deserves to have magic _somewhere!_ I mean, in TRC, towards the end, EVERYONE turns out to be a magic user, even Syaoran. Poor Kuro was left out so I thought, well, why not?

Oh, and please don't kill me for spending that sack of gold. ;D

I have yet to find a way to make Kuro do those 101 things. Maybe Tomoyo will know how. :D

* * *

**KHfan22: **Well, you're just going to have to wait for the next chapter. It'll be a whole lot interesting than the last, I promise you.

* * *

**Dimensional Mistress: **OMG, that was a seriouslyLONG review! It made me really happy.

And the twins do make everything complicated, don't they? Your theories have got my head spinning.

I'm terribly sorry for the late updates but the thing is that I don't tend to upload a chapter unless I'm satisfied with it. Most of the stuff I write is not very good and every once in a while I produce something acceptable and that is what I upload for you guys because I'm sure you wouldn't want to read something that's poorly constructed and absolutely uninteresting.

I no longer have to deal with math and it's made my life so much easier.

Thank the gods, CLAMP has decided to put more chapters in Horitsuba Gakuen. Now I can actually study Yūi's character properly. But they as longer than I do when it comes to updates. :'(

Yes, Yuna is an OC.

OMO! A VK fan. And that too an Ivashkov girl! Yay! Have you read Bloodlines yet? I was so disappointed with the way things ended for Adrian in Last Sacrifice that when Rei told me that Bloodlines was a Sydney-Adrain spin-off I immediately got the e-book and finished it in two days!

Point 84, the who let kuro puppy out seems to be very popular.

There are a lot of 'how to annoy Voldemort; snape; seishomaru; zero…and other irritable characters' fics and I thought, why not make one for kuro and it took a while to make up all 101 points but it was fun to doing so.

* * *

**coolmissy11d12:** Thank you. Rei said the same thing about how nice it'd be if Trickster was an actual series. I think it would make a nice debut novel but I have this other idea in my head which I think is better. I'm trying to write that now and I'm almost done with the first chapter. If I do get it published in this lifetime, I'm thinking I'll make Trickster a spin- off series.

Let's hope it works out. ^_^

I read your FaixOC fic and it's really good. I think I left a review. But you haven't updated in a while. Please do. I'll be waiting.

* * *

**Abby-Flourite:** I hadn't heard of Paranormalcy before you mentioned it but I checked it out on wkipedia dn it seems really interesting. Unfortunately I bought way too many books in the past few months and I won't be able to read it any time soon.

Your theories are really interesting. I can't say if you're right or not now because of spoilers but you'll find out soon enough.

* * *

**xIamYoux:** Thanks for the review.

* * *

**Yuki's POV**

I walked a few paces behind Fai, giving him a cautious berth. He didn't say anything for a while as we walked on silently through the nearly deserted streets of Clow. The occasional cars that flew by were so far driven by humans. I could feel it through their auras as they zoomed by.

So, even in this 'protected' city, Chaos was still feared. Unconsciously, I felt slightly grateful that I wasn't walking back to the Kinomoto's alone.

I was beginning to believe that Fai would walk on silently the entire way. I wouldn't have minded it either but I suppose he'd had enough of the stiff silence.

"I'm sorry," he said. His voice was really small and I barely caught the words. I stopped and bit my lip. Unsure if I should answer or what I should even say.

He stopped as well and turned around hesitantly. In the fading rays of the setting sun, his features seemed almost like a sprite's, very fey-like. Especially his eyes; they looked teal from where I stood.

"Your sister," he said looking uncomfortable and for a second I thought I saw something like regret crossing his face. But that couldn't be right. Maybe it was pity. As if I needed any more of that.

"Eve," he continued, "I heard from Yūko that that's her name?"

He said it like a question, unsure if he was correct or not. I nodded stiffly.

"I'm sorry about what Yūi did. There's no way in which I can justify my brother's actions and I don't intend to either. I just," Fai took a deep breath, "I just wanted to say that I was sorry for what happened and I can understand why you might be a little wary of me."

He gave me a weak grin.

His apology seemed honest enough and I kind of understood how he was feeling. If Eve had voluntarily chosen Chaos and started kidnapping innocent Sprites and Tricksters, I'd have been broken. Having his brother turn over to the 'dark' side couldn't have been a picnic for Fai.

I nodded again, still unsure of what to say. Just because maybe I understood the situation a little did not in any way mean that I was ready to become BFFs and go for retail therapy.

Even though it was of no fault of his own, Fai still had the same face as the person who had single handedly destroyed two (and probably many other) lives. I just couldn't bring myself to be friends with someone who was a constant reminder of the single most devastating thing to have come upon my life.

I guess Fai took my nod as an acceptance of his apology—when in truth it was only an acknowledgement—as his half-hearted smile spread into a full sized grin.

"Come on," he said turning back around, "let's get you home, shall we?"

Suppressing a sigh, I silently followed.

* * *

Watanuki was almost home when his cell phone rang. He fished the device out of his pocket and frowned when he saw the caller ID. "Yūko slave-driving Ichihara," it read. The boy considered ignoring the call for a moment but decided against it, realizing that it would only get him into more trouble with the demonic old woman.

"Yes?" he sighed, "What do you want now?"

"You've got ten minutes," the person on the other end said, "get yourself in my office now… and being some saké," she added as an afterthought.

"What?" Watanuki knew how unreasonable Yūko could be but she never ceased to amaze—or maybe horrify would be a more appropriate word—him. "It's almost dark. The sun will set in minutes. And I'm almost home. It'll take much more than ten minutes to get back to the headquarters."

"Kid," a different voice said. The call was probably on speaker on the other end, "you're human. You're not some rare, wanted, magic wielding, not to mention cool and highly evolved being."

"It's getting dark!"

Yuna, the person to have taken over the conversation from Yūko huffed, "Please, Wata. What are you afraid of? Being mugged? Or someone jumping from dark alleyways and stealing your virtue?"

There were several snickers in the background. Great, Maru and Moro were probably also there.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" the boy screamed into the phone.

"I have a job for you, Watanuki," Yūko said gravely. It was surprising of her to stop the bickering. She usually enjoyed the torment of others. Whatever he was being called for, it must be important. She never got serious if it were otherwise.

"You can forget the saké, if you must," Yūko added with much forced control.

"Okay," Watanuki said, "I'll be there was fast as I can."

* * *

**Yuki's POV**

The sun had set and we were almost at the Kinomoto's when things went off beam.

Fai sensed the auras only a second before I did. He stopped so abruptly that I almost ran into his tall form.

I was confused at first when I felt it, two auras faintly pulsing around the corner we were supposed to turn.

I recognized both the auras. One of them was a trickster, his aura very identical to Fai's with only minute, almost untraceable differences. The other was that of a sprite and her aura was one I knew like the back of my hand.

Fai grabbed my wrist and slowly started to pull me back. I didn't flinch at the contact as I would have under different circumstances. I could only bring myself to concentrate on the sprite just within my reach.

Somewhere at the back of my mind, I knew that I should run, get away from the sprite and the trickster but every other part of me forced back that single rational thought.

For a second, the auras flickered away and I almost cried out Eve's name, strangely afraid that she'd gone and not sensed us at all.

There was a flash and a soft hiss and Fai yanked me away just as a dark circle carved with menacing runes shaped itself into the ground I'd been standing. Thick black and maroon smoky tendrils coiled around the circle's runes.

I sucked in a sharp breath and whirled around. The auras had flickered back into existence and standing under the streetlamp a few paces from me was my sister and the vile creature who'd turned her into an unfeeling puppet.

In the light of the streetlamp, I could see her face much clearly. There were light, fading bruises on her face and a couple of thin cuts that had been reduced to healing angry red lines.

Anger boiled inside me and without realizing it, I found myself reaching for the magic I had buried inside me, the magic I had sworn not to use again. No one, _no one_ got away with hurting MY baby sister.

* * *

**Shield Headquarters**

"Where's my saké, Watanuki?"

"B-But," the boy in question stammered, "But you said…"

"Whatever I said," Yūko interrupted, "I retract it. I want alcohol, ASAP."

"WHY?"

"I've received some very…unpleasant news and I feel like losing some of my senses for a couple of hours so I don't have guilt and a few other undesirable emotions breathing down my neck."

"I…It's dark…" Watanuki settled back to his old argument, "no one's out at this hour."

It was in fact true. Out here in Clow and in most of the country for the matter, people didn't prefer to be out after dark as a general rule. Even most humans went by this regulation.

Yūko opened her mouth to argue some more but Yuna interjected, "You won't die if you stay sober for at least one crisis, Grandma."

"_What_ did you call me?" Yūko struggled to keep a neutral face but Watanuki could clearly see a vein begin to pop.

Yuna sighed and carefully placed a bookmark in between the pages of the manga she was reading, "You heard me the first time. Now, really, we can stay and argue, which in truth, I don't really mind since it's so amusing…or we can help save the world and come out heroes and have bards compose epic poems on our brave and noble actions. Which will it be?"

"I can't even begin to tell you how many things are wrong with that sentence," Watanuki said.

"Do you _want_ to go out on an alcohol supply run?" Yuna snapped.

"No."

"Then let the grown-ups do the talking here, kid. Go find a toy to play with," Yuna chuckled, "That rhymes."

"No, it doesn't and you're just a year older than I am!"

Yuna tapped a finger on the chair's arm impatiently, "Your point being?"

"Well," Yūko interrupted, "as sad as I am to stop your little marital dispute, since I've been forced in sobriety, let's not digress, shall we?"

Watanuki finally remembered that there had been urgency in Yūko's voice when she'd called earlier. Something important was up. She'd also mentioned something about receiving some unpleasant news.

"What's wrong?" Watanuki asked.

"A lot of things," Yūko said, leaning back in her chair. "Not getting my saké is one of them."

"_Yūko-san!"_

"Nekoi Yazuriha," Yūko said, pursing her lips, "is missing and we need you to find her."

* * *

**Yuki's POV**

I knew that it was dangerous to be using magic again but if there was any, _any_ chance that I could save my sister, I was going to take it. Also, I had a tendency to throw rationality out the window when angered and at that moment, seeing Eve in the condition she was in, I was more than angry. I was furious.

Let me tell you here that whatever happened next was nothing like what happens in the movies; which is basically that the protagonist uses his or her emotions as a catalyst to unleash some great super power to beat the crap out of the bad guy.

What really happened was my anger made me sloppy and had me distracted. There was also the little known fact that I wasn't very comfortable with hitting my baby sister.

I'd actually wanted to go after the trickster but Fai stepped up and shook his head.

"I'd like to have a little chat with my brother, if you don't mind Yuki-chan," he said.

"Is that your way of saying, 'I'd like my brother to beat the crap out of me'?" the Trickster smirked.

Fai graced him with a grin of his own, "My, my Yūi, your delusions grow more absurd by the day. Have you been drinking?"

"I should be asking you the same," still smiling, the Trickster took a step towards Eve. He lightly touched the silver ring circling around her neck and closed his eyes. He opened them a second later and fixed his gaze on me. "Eve…you know what to do."

Eve nodded and stalked towards my direction. I saw her aura flicker and then flare up as she reached for her magic. Fai must have made some move to stop her or protect me because it was then that the Trickster launched into his 'beating the crap out of my brother' plan.

As if I needed _him_ to protect me.

I only caught a brief glimpse of that dark circle carve itself again, this time under Fai while he jumped away just as soon. They were still continuing their trash talk, throwing witty quips like they were just fooling around and not trying to kill or at the very least, seriously impale each other.

Eve and I, on the other hand did not exchange any verbal greetings, or any greetings at all for the matter. I felt the temperature around me drop and knew what she was up to and I dodged just as a volley of ice with scary sharp pointed tips zipped in my direction. I wasn't fast enough though, since one of the ice spears grazed my cheek.

I stumbled for a second but Eve wasn't fazed at all. She was relentless in her attack. I had to duck, dodge, sidestep, run, sprint, and whatever else it required not to have a gaping hole through my body.

The asphalt beneath me was starting to develop a thin coat of ice and I could see my breath cloud over my face. My concentration solely focused on defense. I couldn't attack my sister. I wouldn't. I mean, I was the older one. It was my job to protect her, not inflict more scars on her.

I'd already done a terrible job on the protection department in the past. Letting her get caught and everything and I wasn't about to add more to go on my list of mess ups.

There was a problem with my plan though. My instincts of self-preservation were clashing with my sisterly affections. Thing was that when it came to Eve, she was one of the best. She was, in fact, just as good as I was when it came to situations like this. At some point or the other, I was going to have to attack.

* * *

**Shield Headquarters**

Yuna sat, tapping an impatient finger on her armrest while Wata Wata had to be filled with the details of Nekoi Yazuriha's assignment which she had been working on when she went MIA.

It had only been a minute or so and already she was bored. She wasn't too psyched about being forced to be involved in this mess either. If the Sprite could have her way, she'd have ignored anything that involved stepping out of her house at all.

She hardly even knew the missing girl anyway. They'd only exchanged the briefest greetings. Sure, Nekoi Yazuriha seemed like a nice person but that wasn't enough for Yuna to care, not when she knew what was in store for her in all this. And yet, she'd agreed to it.

What had she been thinking?

"What were you thinking?" Wata said angrily. Yuna blinked herself out of musings to find the human standing up with incredulity and some of the anger that had been in his voice laid out across his features, "No!"

"What?" Yuna asked, "What did she say?"

Yūko didn't even blink. She knew that Yuna didn't pay attention most of the time but the human looked at her in disbelief.

"Were you even in this room?" he asked her.

"Don't you know, human?" Yuna said airily, "I'm the most self-absorbed person alive. I don't pay attention when it doesn't concern me or my well-being."

"Watanuki's just stressing out over the fact that we need him to use his 'abilities' in this investigation," Yūko informed, easing back into her chair.

"It's not that simple!" Watanuki protested, "I…I don't like it. I don't _want_ my magic. I can't even control it."

Yuna looked back at the conflicting expression on Watanuki's face, "Kid," she said slowly, Yuna always felt uncomfortable when it came to anything that didn't involve sarcasm, especially now, when she had to be nice to the kid. "Come on. Even I'll have to use my magic. And I'm just as thrilled about it as you are."

Wata squirmed a little more "But," he said, "I…I lost control the last time."

"Ah," Yuna held up a finger, "We've arranged for someone to keep your magic in check this time."

"What?" Watanuki asked immediately, "Who is it?"

Yuna smiled ominously, "Do you really want to know?"

There was confusion on his face for a second or two which was quickly replaced by the horror that echoed in his voice. "No. Not that guy!"

"Yeah," Yuna's grinned and behind her Yūko, who had picked up the novel the younger sprite had been reading mirrored the smile. _"Him."_

On cue, there was a polite knock on the door. Watanuki took a few steps back.

"Come in," Yūko said.

A tall boy entered. He had briskness about him and an air of seriousness. He nodded politely to Yūko and awkwardly returned Yuna's friendly wave. When his eyes settled on Watanuki, his expression remained perfectly composed as he declared, "I want Takoyaki in my bento tomorrow."

* * *

**Yuki's POV**

Eve had gone through the same training as I had when we'd first been recruited by Shield. She was really, very good at this. The only reason she hadn't gained much of a reputation like I had was only because she was the kinder one. She also had a tendency to question authority. A big 'no, no' in the line of work we'd been in.

"I'm not taking this assignment," Eve had said one such day, tossing a manila folder towards Special Agent Nell. The balding, middle aged, agent displayed a set of reddish-yellow teeth which was probably his effort in a smile.

"And why is that, hon?" his tone was mild but you could hear the strains of suppressed irritation if you were paying attention.

"Because," Eve had said, crossing her arms, "this guy, Masayoshi or whatever, he's just a kid!"

"Hmm?" Yuri—that was Special Agent Nell's first name. Yuri Nell. Yes, I know how that sounds and no, only Eve ever laughed about it right in his face. The rest of us did it behind his back.

I saw a small wallet-sized photo of a little boy, about seven or so with a roundish face and short-cropped hair clipped to the documents inside the folder. It was the first thing that caught my eyes as Yuri began to lazily browse through the pages of detailed and carefully organized information.

"So he is," the agent said, "but the thing is hon, kid or not, he's become a liability. We can't seem to control him and you know that a rogue trickster is the worst trickster, even a nine-year old."

"I'm not taking this assignment," Eve repeated.

"You aren't kept safe from Chaos for talking back to your superiors, darling," Special Agent Yuri Nell smiled again, unleashing the full force of his hideous Voldemort teeth.

I had to resist the urge to shield my eyes and run. That would have been very cowardly and unprofessional.

"Are you threatening me, you old fatso?" Eve snapped. I probably should have stopped her but I wasn't very fond of fat old Nell. Besides, Shield needed us, maybe even more then we needed them and _Special Agent_ Nell wasn't very high up in power. Sure, she was technically our superior but there wasn't much he could do about a little insubordination from one of the best sprites Shield had.

"Learn to hold your tongue in, you little witch."

Eyes narrowed, Eve's face slipped into perfect seriousness, "I can kill you in your sleep and pin it on your hamster and no one will question it. So, _you_ keep _your_ behavior on check when you're talking to me—"

"Eve," I said, slowly, placing a hand on her arm.

She took a deep breath and stepped back. She had activated her magic and I'd felt it. Nell didn't realize it, but he was very close to having his hamster behind bars, or so to say.

"You'll be reported for your insubordination, you witch," only this time, he didn't exactly say witch.

A spear of ice zipped though the air and lodged itself in the wall behind Nell. He screamed like a kid and ducked. Another followed, and another.

"That is," I said, "if you're left alive."

* * *

We didn't kill him, of course. I mean, sure, he was an ass but not worth the trouble. We already had to endure a little lecture on our tempers from Chitose-san. She wasn't particularly fond of Nell. No one was but we _had_ threatened him.

"Agent Nell was out making demands that we use the Halo," Chitose-san said pinching the brim of her nose, "Of course that's silly but it won't be if you keep this up."

"He was being an ass," Eve said.

"He's _always _an ass," Chitose-san said with a roll of her eyes. "But that doesn't make threatening a superior any less of an offence."

"But you guys aren't taking the Halo thing seriously, are you?" I asked, "Do you even use those things?"

The Halo is a silver band infused with heavy compulsion that allows control over the person wearing it. Chaos were the first to start using it.

Chitose-san pursed her lips, "Only in special cases."

Eve's eyes widened while I bit my lip.

"Like?" it was Eve who asked the question.

"When Tricksters or Sprites lose control of their magic. We only use it so that they don't hurt themselves or anyone else and the Halo stays on only until the magic subdues so that there's no danger."

A sudden image of that nine-year old Trickster flashed inside my head.

"That kid," I began, "Mas…er, Masayoshi?" I tripped over the name, "Is that what's going to happen to him.

Chitose-san nodded stiffly, "If we find him."

He had been smiling in the picture I had seen in his file. Not brightly, just kind of awkwardly but smiling all the same. What would happen now when he would be forced under compulsion?

_That smile will fade_, I realized, _and so will everything else inside him._

And that's exactly what had happened to Eve. Everything that made her who she was, her laughter, her sharp tongue that no one could control, her unnatural kindness for all animals and even for people, although she tried to hide the latter.

Now, the person attacking was hardly my sister. She was just a puppet. A puppet being controlled by the Halo just as I'd feared for that kid.

The Halo! Oh God, the Halo!

It had compulsion magic infused into it. How could I have not thought of this before? Compulsion was very, very difficult to work into an object. A little damage to the Halo could weaken the compulsion.

My little revelation cost me though. I slipped on the ice that had coated the asphalt and landed on my butt. Not graceful, I assure you. Eve took the opportunity to send another volley of ice towards me.

I barely had time to produce a shield that took the impact.

I needed to get near Eve and near that Halo. I couldn't attack from far away for fear of accidently hurting Eve. I hastily got up and maneuvered myself closer to her, running, dodging, side-stepping and ducking all the way as more ice was hurled at me.

Behind me, the Fluorite twins were still at it. There were crashing sounds and more trash talk from their side. Then, there was a louder crash, a crackle and another crash and one of the twins slammed on the ground a little further from Eve. From his clothes, I knew he was her Trickster.

Eve got momentarily distracted by this and as the Trickster was starting back on his feet, cursing all the way, I lunged towards my sister. Her eyes widened in surprise and her aura lit up even brighter as she called for more magic. But I was too fast. Before she could attack again, I caught hold of the Halo, or brushed fingers anyway. But that was enough.

Eve screamed as she crashed down to the icy road, clutching the Halo. I backed away even as her magic started to go haywire. The thin layer of ice in the ground rose around her and the spears were back, hovering all around, pointing at different directions. Another scream and they all zoomed through the air.

Some shattered when they hit each other. Others crashed on the transparent icy wall around Eve and a whole lot of other came flying towards me.

I lifted my hands to call up a shield again as I was backing up when I slipped again. I wasn't that big a klutz but ice _is_ slippery. We all know that. Walking on that stuff isn't a picnic. I would have probably ended up with those gaping holes I'd talked about before. Right through my vital organs.

A huge shape crashed into me, rolling me away from the ice. There was a painful gasp and as I opened my eyes which I'd closed when the shape hit me, I found a pair of warm crystalline blue eyes so very close to my face. Fai's light blonde hair tickled my forehead and I could even smell his breath; sort of fresh like mint.

And then my eyes moved to the two huge shards of ice embedded on his back and the blood that from the wound.

Biting his lip, he rolled off me with a muffled groan.

Further away, the ice wall around Eve had melted and she was looked at me with horror while a step away from her was the Trickster. He was pulling an ice shard from his shoulder.

"Onee-chan?" Eve said with a broken voice. I stared back while the Trickster gasped. He ran to her and laid a hand on her Halo. Her eyes blanked over again.

"No!" I struggled to get up but even though I hadn't been wounded by the ice shards, I was hurt all the same and the Trickster was too fast. His face was still showing surprise when he lifted his eyes from Eve to look at me and then there was that same black circle under them but this time rainbow swirls erupted from the edges and then they were gone.

"No…" I said.

I had lost her again.

"Yuki-chan?" Fai's voice broke through the pain. He got up to his feet shakily and pulled the ice in what must have been one painful motion.

"Are you okay?" he asked me.

I could only stare. He had taken those spears meant for me. He was barely able to stand and was bleeding what seemed like a river of blood and he was asking if _I _was okay.

With a deep breath, I walked over to him. He took a step back when I lifted my hand towards the wound. "I'm just going to heal it," I said.

Fai lifted an eyebrow.

"I…" I stumbled, "I'm a Healer."

My skin tingled from the use of magic and as slowly the wounds started to close up. Fai kept on staring at me until I began to feel self-conscious. When the cuts were healed completely, I took a step back.

"Thank you," I said.

He smiled, "That's what I should be saying."

I shook my head, "You saved my life."

"Well," Fai said with his smile still intact, "Does that mean I'm not in your hit list anymore?"

I could help but manage a little smile of my own, "You're still there. Just not at the top."

"Wonderful! We're making progress. We might even be friends some day!" Fai said cheerily, steering me off subtly towards the undamaged side of the road.

I doubted his words but he was probably just kidding. He couldn't really think we could be friends, could he? Even though he had saved me and all—which, let me tell you, is kind of embarrassing—I just couldn't get over the fact that he looked exactly the same as Eve's Trickster.

Of course that wasn't _his_ fault but I couldn't help it.

* * *

A/N: Okay, how was it? I'd written over six versions of this chapter until I got here. There are a few useable parts in the other version which I think I'll incorporate in the future chapters wherever I may find suitable.

I'll start working on the next chapter right away and hopefully there'll be a quicker update this time.

Watanuki: Yeah. Like that will ever happen.

Domeki: Where's my takoyaki?

Watanuki: Make it yourself!

Yuna: I want egg rolls and some of that Takoyaki.

Watnuki: I'M NOT YOUR PERSONAL CHEF! Make it YOURSELF!

Domeki: No.

Yuna: Never.

Yūko: I want beer.

Watanuki: NO!

Himawari: But Watanuki-kun, your egg rolls are so nice.

Kohane: Yes. I'd like some.

Watanuki: Of course, Himawari-chan, Kohane-chan. I'll make them for you.

Domeki: Don't forget the Takoyaki.

Yuna: And make some noodles too.

Sakura: That sounds nice.

Syaoran: Would you like some help, Watanuki-kun?

Watanuki: Thank you, but there's no need.

Rei: Awesome. Then make some Crab cream korokke too.

Me: And fried prawns. I like fried prawns.

Yuki: With fried rice!

Eve: And chicken!

Fai: Ice cream for dessert would be wonderful. Not to mention lots of alcohol.

Yūko: ALCOHOL! YEAH!

W. Mokona and B. Mokona: We're gonna get drunk tonight!

Maru: Drunk!

Moro: *Hic*

Kuro-pup: DON"T YOU DARE!

Tomoyo: Don't be a party pooper, Kurgy. I want to get drunk too.

Kuro-pooper: Absolutely NOT!

Me: Okay, we'll be heading off to Yūko's place for the huge feast Watanuki's planning to cook for us…

Watanuki: You mean what you've FORCED me to cook.

Me: Do NOT interrupt me! Ahem. Where was I? Oh, and while we torture Wata-Wata with our food requests and infuriate Kuro-rin by getting drunk, why don't you guys leave us a review or maybe subscribe to the story or anything else that lets us know that we have readers and maybe we'll leave some food for you.

Rei: And remember, we don't mind constructive criticism. In fact, it's welcome but flames will not be tolerated. ^_^


	9. Normalcy

Chapter six: Normalcy

Author: XxArtemisxX

Editor: lady sovereign

* * *

**A/N: So, I finally finished this up. I thought I'd post this on Christmas Day but I wasn't home for the most part and when I did get back, I was dead tired.**

**I'm hoping that the next updates will be quicker this time. I know I say that a lot but this time, I'll really try. My Winter Break just started and while it's not as long as I would like it to be (just one measly week), I've decided that I'll work on my fanfics sincerely when I'm not gobbling up the books I bought to read during the holidays.**

**Sure hope this works out.**

**Rei: Oh please. I just _know_ that you'll end up reading Ao no Exorcist insead of doing either of the things you mentioned.**

**Me: How would _you_ know that? Oh, and by the way, guys, this chapter hasn't been edited. Rei has exams on the 3rd and she's super busy—that ungrateful freak! I have to bloody pay her in chocolates for going over my fics and yet I always end up editing my own chapters.**

**Rei: Excuse me? Shut up, Liar!**

**W. Mokona: Pants on fire!**

**Maru: Fire!**

**B. Mokona: Burn baby!**

**Moro: BURN!**

**Me: Whatever. Yūko? Disclaimer!**

**Yūko: I'm going to need something of equal value.**

**Me: What? NO! You should consider this a privilege. I'm not paying you.**

**Yūko: Fine. Continue without the disclaimer then!**

**Me: Someone else can do it. Wait…where is everybody?**

**Yūko: I sent them away.**

**Me: Alright then, _I'll_ read the disclaimer. I wo wot won wha Woowawa Woweewles…Yūko! WHAT did you do to me?**

**Yūko: A basic spell. You can't read the disclaimer. Every time you try wisss wappens.**

**Me: You Wevil, wenupulative weesh (You evil, manipulative witch). WHAT?**

**Yūko: You also cannot call me names.**

**Me: You are seriously WEVIL! Fine! What's your price?**

**Yūko: MUAHAHAHAHAHA! I want to take over the end Author's Note.**

**Me: But you're not the author. I am!**

**Yūko: That's my final and only offer. Take it or leave it.**

**Me: *grumble* Grrr. Okay.**

**Yūko: *rings* Disclaimer: XxArtemisxX and lady sovereign are obviously too stupid to own TRC or any of the characters. So, we still belong to the awesome CLAMP! They do own Yuki and Yuna though.**

**Me: So, since I take so long to update (gomenesai!), I'm giving you a recap on what happened in the last chapter: Halo.**

_Fai walked Yuki back to the Kinomoto's because Sakura and the others went home early. Along the way, Fai apologised for what his brother had done and although Yuki didn't fully trust Fai, she kind of understood that he was honest in the apology and that what happened to Eve wasn't his fault._

_When they were almost at the Kinomoto's, Yūi and a brainwashed Eve showed up. They tried to capture Yuki and Fai fought his brother while Yuki dealt with Eve who was being controlled by a ring called the Halo around her neck._

_Yuki managed to scratch the Halo and for a second Eve recognized her sister before Yūi whisked her away._

_Fai got hurt in the fight and Yuki healed him, saying that she was a Healer Sprite._

_In the meantime, Yūko announced to Watanuki that Nekoi Yazuriha was missing and that he, along with Yuna and Domeki were assigned to search for her._

_And that's what you missed on Glee! Er, I mean, Trickster._

* * *

_~O~_

_Up, down, turn around_

_Please don't let me hit the ground_

_Tonight I think I'll walk alone_

_Find my soul as I go home_

_~Temptation by Moby_

* * *

Yuna's POV

To say that waking up at five on a Sunday morning is an unpleasant experience would be a gross understatement and to say that to me would be downright suicidal.

Lucky for Kimihiro Watanuki, I was barely functional or conscious at such an unearthly hour. I had a solitary goal in mind: to get as much caffeine into my system as I possibly could. Being carried through the streets of Clow by a _child_ would not only render a colossal hit to my ego but would also be considerably delaying the job at hand.

That was the last thing I wanted at the moment. The completion of the task meant that I was no longer required or had any obligation to stick around for any more Shield assignments for the day—unless Yūko deemed otherwise, which she had promised she wouldn't.

It was a Sunday after all and I was not a Shield agent, but an underage Sprite under the protection of the government who was occasionally required to carry out certain minor tasks in preparation of what was to come if I wished to be employed as a field agent in the near future. I did not, but Yūko had an annoying tendency to ignore me whenever I brought this up.

She would have to face facts eventually, of course. My only wish was that it wouldn't completely crush her. I was the prodigal Sprite she's trained herself, after all. No other apprentice excelled in long distance combat, could provide nefariously cunning schemes, single-handedly irritate the heck out of any living being or had the incredible ability to carefully manipulate others.

Oh, I know. I'm a gem.

"That's strange," Watanuki mumbled. "Yazuriha-chan was working alone."

We were seated in a popular café—Cat's Eye—in the next town over where Nekoi Yazuriha lived. I'd thought that by looking over Yazuriha's case files on the assignment she'd been given, we could probably get some leads but suggesting that to Watanuki the previous night was probably not the best way to go. He was one of those annoying people you call a "morning person." He wanted an early start to things and this is where it had got me: Hell.

Yazuriha's room was a _mess._ There had to be a thousand files and scattered sheets of paper with untidy notes scribbled on them all over the place; some related to her last case, some to her other ones.

It took an hour for Watanuki to sort through a quarter of them before he decided that he needed help and I, not being an alien like him, would be no good without any coffee.

So, he grabbed two files and with a beady eyed, slumping, yet awesome Yuna in tow headed for the café on the other side of the road.

Five Chocó mochas away, I was finally able to carry out a verbal conversation for exactly five minutes.

"So?"

"She was human. Like me. She was fourteen and human and Shield does not send fourteen year old humans alone on assignments."

"Well," I said yawning, "there's always a first time."

"She was _human._"

That boy could be so annoying sometimes. "I heard you the first time, Wata. But 'human' also equals to 'not unique', 'not awesome' which inevitably leads to the conclusion that no one cares. She probably got lost. Humans also have the _amazing_ ability of being extremely stupid."

"What do you have against humans?" Wata asked, putting down the file to glare at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Your kind is also much too sensitive. Not to mention blindly impervious to the truth."

He let out an aggravated sigh and went back to the files.

As I took another sip of the coffee, my phone chimed. I pulled it out to inspect the text message I had received. Watanuki glanced up with curiosity again.

"It's your boyfriend," I grinned, whist reading the text. From the corner of my eye, I distinctly saw a vein pop in Wata's forehead. "Shizuka wants to know if you have that Takoyaki he asked for."

"You can tell him I have better things to do," he shot.

"He says he won't come to help unless he gets his Takoyaki."

"Fine," Watanuki snapped. "No one needs him."

I laughed. "Really now? What happens after we're done with these files and we need to carry out the actual search? Are you okay with losing control of your magic?"

Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Scaring the kid would be no good.

"I'll make the Takoyaki when I want to. You tell him he'll just have to wait." Watanuki said indignantly. I smiled in relief.

"Oh, look," I said as the phone chimed again. "He says that he also wants egg rolls and fried prawns."

"Absolutely not!" Watanuki growled.

I took pleasure in his irritation. "Well, Shizuka won't take no for an answer."

"I'm not his wife!" he almost shouted. "I refuse to carry out that insensitive jerk's every whim."

"Well," I drawled. This was immensely amusing, "your hubbie says otherwise. I wife part, I mean. How could you Wata? You didn't even invite me to the wedding."

"What?" Watanuki positively screeched and snatched the phone from me. A quick scan though the conversation on screen had his eyebrow twitching in irritation.

"You made that up!" he accused.

"It's not _that_ far from the truth," I smirked as Watanuki all but flung the phone away.

I was still grinned when I received another message. This wasn't from Domeki though. It said, "Look out the window."

I knew what I would see before I even turned my head. All strands of my previous happiness dissolved when I saw him standing on the other side of the road. Dressed in his usual black, he looked the same as always. The same unruly dark hair, alabaster skin and electric blue eyes that was staring directly at me.

I narrowed my eyes and mouthed, "Go to hell."

He only smiled in that infuriatingly sarcastic way of his and the next moment he was gone. I wasn't stupid though. I knew what was going to happen and a second later, the door opened with a soft tinkle of the bell and the devil stepped inside.

* * *

Yuki's POV

The noise woke me up.

Somewhere downstairs chaos was ensuing and I had a vague idea about what was going on. Touya's mocking laughter and Sakura's enraged screams made it evident.

I should probably have been annoyed at being woken up early on a Sunday morning—the clock sitting on the bedside table indicated that it was 7:30 am. I didn't mind though. For the first time I was actually somewhat content here and the ruckus downstairs was just an indication that there was some normalcy in this place and that's all I wanted; some kind of sign that my life was not all doom and gloom.

Smiling ever so slightly, I got out of the covers and shuffled towards the bathroom. I splashed my face with the water, removing the last dregs of sleep. When I looked up at my reflection in the mirror, I saw a few left over bruises from yesterday's events that had shown up overnight.

I stared at myself for a while, feeling my mind reel back to the past. Something insane had happened when I damaged the Halo, something incredible. I hadn't entirely been sure about my idea and I still hadn't been able to process things properly when recognition had flashed for a moment in Eve but after a full night's rest, I had slightly clearer perception.

Eve wasn't beyond help. Sure, they had probably fixed or replaced her Halo but if I could just get near her again, I was sure that this time, I wouldn't let that Trickster take her away again.

With a deep breath, I let the bruises heal and as I watched, they began lightening in colour until there wasn't any visible trace of them.

A loud crash from downstairs brought me back to the present. Smiling again, I stepped outside my room and leaned over the balcony trying to get a glimpse of what was going on.

"Give it back!" Sakura shouted and lunged towards Touya who was casually leaning against the opposite wall holding up a pink notebook. Just as Sakura almost got a hold of the object, Touya disappeared.

"Binge eating has slowed you down, hasn't it, monster?" Touya's voice drifted from the other side of the room.

With a frustrated cry, Sakura rushed to get back the stolen item but the older Trickster vanished again and reappeared seated casually on the couch. Smirking all the while, he opened the notebook and skimmed though it.

"Let's see what we have here…" Touya said, stopping at a particular page. "Saturday, March 27…"

"No!" With a loud cry, Sakura pressed her palms to the floor. A magic circle carved itself under the sprite and simultaneously another appeared beneath Touya. Before the Trickster could react, jet back tendrils shot out of the circle and wrapped themselves around him.

"Give it back," Sakura said again and stomped towards her brother, determined to get her journal back from the 'thief'.

Touya wasn't fazed in the slightest. Just as Sakura almost got her hands on the notebook, he disappeared again and this time appeared in the balcony beside me.

"Syaoran-kun and I went to Cat's Eye after meeting up with Nekoi-chan yesterday," Touya read aloud from the journal, "Yūko-san wanted us to get updates from her on the Tsubasa Reservoir case but there wasn't anything new so we didn't stay long. Syaoran-kun wanted to go back immediately but I dragged him when I saw the cute coffee place…"

"Stop it!" Sakura rushed up the stairs, horrified with each word that was read out loud.

"I wonder what happened next," Touya said waving the journal in the air. "Did you eat so much that they had to close the place down, huh Monster?"

"Don't call me that!" I stepped out of the way as Touya backed away from Sakura and raised the journal as high as he could while his sister jumped up and down to try and grab it.

The tendrils reappeared, clawing and reaching for the journal as Touya tried his best to resist. A flicker of magic and he was gone again, only to show up behind me.

"Let's see what's next…" he grinned, "It's frustrating how clueless Syaoran-kun can be sometimes. I couldn't even consider that a date since all he could talk about was this assignment and that case. He was lucky I didn't hit him in the head with the coffee pot out of spite. Was it so difficult for him to realize how I felt? Tomoyo-chan said that I was pretty obvious about it…"

Sakura immediately turned cherry-red. I could practically see smoking coming out of her head.

"You have a crush on the _brat?" _Touya said incredulously.

"He is _not _a brat!" Sakura protested.

"And it _is _very obvious," said a new voice. I turned around to see Fai standing in the doorway of the room next to mine. "It's really incredible how Syaoran-kun has no idea though. Even Kuro-chi has noticed."

Ugh! I'd almost forgotten about him.

Fai insisted on dropping me off at the Kinomoto's yesterday even though I'd said I could make it. It was highly unlikely that there would be another attack but he insisted. Thus, with no other choice left—it was insane how persistent the guy could be—I let him tag along.

Mrs. Kinomoto was waiting on the porch since I was way past curfew. I was touched that she cared until she invited Fai to stay over considering it was already dark and it was never wise for a teenage un-bonded Trickster to be out at such a time.

Part of the reason I'd healed Fai was so that he could go his way as soon as possible. That plan fell flat when he accepted Mrs. Kinomoto's invitation though.

Dinner wasn't as awkward as I'd expected it to be. Fai and I thankfully didn't talk to each other. He engaged in a conversation with Sakura and Mr. Kinomoto while I answered the few questions Mrs. Kinomoto asked me.

Fai had recounted the evenings events with Yūi—that'd be Fai's brother, I think—and Eve right after we'd arrived and a call had been made to Shield's Headquarters so that Yūko was updated as well.

After dinner, Sakura and Touya had a little squabble while their parents tried best to contain the situation. In fear that I might be subjected to Fai's company, as cowardly as it was, I rushed to my room, shut the door and pretended to sleep.

And by morning, I'd forgotten all about Fai…until that moment, at least.

"Why the brat?" Touya asked his sister.

Sakura who was still blushing furiously, turned an accusing gaze at Fai. "Whose side are you on?"

"The Truth's" Fai said.

I took this distraction to snatch the journal from Touya's clutches.

"Hey!" he complained.

"This has been very amusing," I said, "but I'm hungry and at this rate, it'll be noon before any one of us gets anything to eat."

"Oh, we can fix that soon enough," Fai said coming up from behind and snatching back that elusive journal. "But first, this little thing is my ticket to getting some dirt on our dear, innocent Sakura-chan. I would have to be mad if I missed an opportunity such as this."

"Fai!" Sakura said, stomping her feet.

"Sorry, princess," Fai grinned, "but this is payback for abandoning with Yuna last week."

"That wasn't on purpose," Sakura said defensively.

"_Sure."_

"I had no choice!"

"Of course, you didn't"

I had no idea what _this_ was about now. Was Yuna such a pain that there would be revenge due for being left alone with her? I liked the girl, however brief our meeting had been. But then again, I had only been here for a little more than a day. What would I know? Yuna could be a psychopathic serial killer who practised Satanism drank the blood of little children for all I knew.

Fai tossed the journal to Touya who Shifted back to the ground floor and ran right into a translucent, blue wall.

Standing by the front door, grocery bags in hand, a magic circle under her feet and a frown on her face was Mrs. Kinomoto. Uh-oh! The fun was over…or so to say, I guess.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Sakura immediately took the chance. "He stole my journal and was reading it aloud," she said as she bounded down the stairs. Fai and I followed but in a more normal pace.

Mrs. Kinomoto narrowed her eyes at her son. "Is that true?"

"Of course it's not!" Touya said without hesitation.

"Liar!" Sakura said as she snatched the pink notebook from his hands. "Then how did this get in your hands?"

"It was lying on the ground. I just happened to pick it up."

"He's lying again," Sakura said.

"What did I say about antagonizing your sister?" Mrs. Kinomoto asked.

"That it was highly encouraged?"

"Fai helped him!" Sakura added.

Fai, who had been trying to slink away without attracting attention, was pulled back by his ear. "I can't believe the two f you are up to no good so early in the morning.

"Evil never rests," I sighed.

Fai made a face in my directing and without even realizing it; I stuck my tongue out in retort. He seemed startled for a moment but then grinned.

"Both of you are grounded," Mrs. Kinomoto announced.

"But I'm twenty!" Touya argued. "You can't ground me!"

"And I don't live here!" Fai protested.

"No excuses! My verdict is final."

Sakura whooped in triumph while I laughed at the sour faces the two guys were making.

"I'll get you back for this, Monster!" Touya said and then focused on me, "Monster, the second."

"Excuse me?" I said while Mrs. Kinomoto coughed.

"You will do no such thing or I'll spread word that someone your age is being grounded by Mummy!"

Touya groaned.

"Now," said Mrs. Kinomoto with a smile, "Breakfast, anyone?"

* * *

**A/N (this is actually Yūko): Terrible chapter, wasn't it?**

**Rei: Especially since I didn't get to beta it.**

**Artemis: And whose fault is that?**

**Rei: Yours?**

**Yūko: Shut up! I'm in charge and no one gets to interrupt while I'm speaking.**

**So, like I was saying, terrible chapter. I was hardly mentioned and Artemis had the nerve to portray me as some insensitive, demented, old woman.**

**Kuro-tan: That's exactly who you are. Especially the old part.**

**Watanuki: I second that.**

**Yūko: Stop interrupting me!**

**Artemis: That's what you get for taking over. Hehehehehe. Anyway, I haven't started the next chapter so, would you like me to continue Yuki's part or Yuna's part or maybe both in the same chapter? Should I write a bit about what's going on with Eve and Yūi as well?**

**Let me know as soon as you can.**

**Don't forget to review!**

**Oh, and by the way, those of you who are curious as to how Yuki looks, here's the link to the picture I drew of her http:/xxflameangelxx(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/Fey-Light-275884985**


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